Teaching them young

T Radhakrishna
23 September 2003

Shanta Sinha has bagged the Magsaysay Award for her work to bridge the great gap between poor children and mainstream education

Bangalore: Shanta Sinha and the MV Foundation (MVF) bridge the great gap between poor children and mainstream education. For this pioneering work, Sinha has recently been conferred with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2003 for Community Leadership (contribution towards bringing education a reality for poor children).

A professor in the department of political science, Hyderabad Central University, Sinha is the trustee secretary of MVF (). She is also in charge of laying the policy guidelines for MVF. In an exclusive interview with domain-b, she shares her views on bagging the coveted award and her untiring work. Excerpts:

What was your reaction when you heard about the good news?
It's a great honour to be included among the eminent persons who have earlier received this award. At the same time, I felt that it was a vindication of our stand that no child must work and every child must attend full-time formal schools.

What does the award mean to you? And has it given a boost to MVF and its initiatives?
The award gives tremendous energy to all our volunteers and support groups in the villages who have been working relentlessly, against all odds to bring children to schools.

Will this honour mean your responsibility has increased?
The award has given us a larger circle of well-wishers with whom one can build alliances and networks, thus helping in sharing the responsibility.