New Delhi: Renowned journalist P Sainath has been awarded the Fukuoka Grand Prize for 2021, which is among Japan’s very top international awards.
“Despite his brilliant career, Mr. Sainath’s dogged approach to the pursuit of ‘knowledge’ has stayed unchanged. He collects information by scrupulously walking around the villages and talking to people, captures the reality in photographs and reveals the real situations of poverty and natural disasters,” reads the citation of the prize.
“Since last year he has been busy reporting on the rural areas which are suffering doubly from the pandemic of COVID-19 and poverty and encouraging people to help each other. For his pursuit of ‘knowledge’’ and civic cooperation, amid the turbulence of an Asia which is undergoing drastic change, Mr. Palagummi Sainath is very deserving of the Grand Prize of the Fukuoka Prize,” it added.
During his 40 years of journalism, Sainath has won about 50 national and international awards.
He has taught and continues to teach hundreds of journalism students, mentors scores of reporters and inspires several photographers, filmmakers, editors, writers and readers, including this one. He has influenced so many to follow the path he created; many among them have become award winning journalists themselves.
The Fukuoka Grand Prize award is given in three categories: Academic Prize, Culture Prize and the Grand Prize. The Grand Prize is considered the biggest among them. The last Indian to be awarded the prize was A. R. Rahman (2016).
Historian Romila Thapar and Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan were awarded the prize in Academic and Cultural category. The Fukuoka Grand Prize carries a bigger cash award than the Magsaysay Prize.
Established by the city of Fukuoka and the Fukuoka City International Foundation “to honor the outstanding work of individuals or organizations in preserving or creating Asian culture”, the award “aims to foster and increase awareness of the value of Asian cultures, and to establish a foundation from which people of the Asia can learn and share with one another”.
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