Sonam Wangchuk, who inspired Aamir’s character in ‘3 Idiots’, wins Magsaysay Award

New Delhi: Two Indians, Dr Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk, are among six who have been declared winners of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize.

Photo credit: Facebook/Sonam Wangchuk

Bharat Vatwani is a Mumbai based doctor and founder of Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation and Sonam Wangchuk, founder of Operation New Hope, is an education reform programme in Ladakh. Sonam Wangchuk is the inspiration behind Aamir Khan’s character in Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation in its citation on Mr Vatwani said the board of trustees recognise “his tremendous courage and healing compassion in embracing India’s mentally-afflicted destitute, and his steadfast and magnanimous dedication to the work of restoring and affirming the human dignity of even the most ostracized”.

The Foundation recognised Mr Wangchuk for “his uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving the life opportunities of Ladakhi youth, and his constructive engagement of all sectors in local society to harness science and culture creatively for economic progress, thus setting an example for minority peoples in the world.”

Cambodia’s Youk Chhang, East Timor’s Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz, Philippines’ Howard Dee and Vietnams’ Vo Thi Hoang Yen rom Vietnam are other winners of the award, the Foundation said.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, the highest award given to Asian individuals and orgnaisations, was established in 1957, in the memory of third Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay. (UNI)