Eminent woman activist and author from Odisha Manasi Pradhan has been nominated for the prestigious Wockhardt Foundation Peace Award for the year 2017.
The award jury panel has nominated a total of five candidates from India for the 2017 Wockhardt Peace Award. Besides Pradhan, others nominated for the award this year include Booker prize winner Arundhati Roy, Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy, Puducherry Governor Dr Kiran Bedi and renowned activist Medha Patkar.
To vote for Pradhan, give a miss call to the number 7097198659. The voting line opens from August 30 and closes on September 19. The award will be declared on September 21. Widely recognized as one of the most influential women’s rights activist across the globe, Pradhan is among 12 greatest feminists like Shririn Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchu, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinam an Kate Millet to be in the list. She is the only Indian ever to make to this global list as well.
In 2016, Pradhan was also the only Indian to be named by New York-based Bustle magazine among World’s Top 20 Feminists Authors and Activists along with Naomi Klein, Malala, Angela Davis, Nikki Giovanni, Ann Jones and others. Pradhan is the founder of Honour for Women National Campaign, a nationwide movement to end violence against women in India. In 2013, Pradhan was conferred with the prestigious Rani lakshmibai Stree Shakti Puraskar in the Rashtrapati Bhawan by the President of India. She has received numerous international and national awards including the Outstanding Women Award in 2011. Born to a poor family in a remote village of Banapur block in Khurdha district of Odisha, Pradhan travelled 15 km daily, amidst hilly terrain and swamp, to the only high school in the entire region to emerge as the first women law graduate. The inspiring life story of Pradhan has been adopted as tele-series and documentaries in United States, Israel, United Kingdom and India