Ramon Magsaysay Award

About Ramon Magsaysay Award:

• It is Asia’s premier prize and the highest honour celebrates the greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia.
• The Ramon Magsaysay Awardees, annually selected by the RMAF board of trustees, are presented with a certificate and a medallion with an embossed image of Ramon Magsaysay facing right in profile.
• From 1958 to 2008, the Award was given in six categories annually:
  • Government Service: To recognise outstanding service in the public interest in any branch of government, including the executive, judicial, legislative, or military;
  • Public Service: To recognise outstanding service for the public good by a private citizen;
  • Community Leadership: To recognise leadership of a community toward helping the disadvantaged have fuller opportunities and a better life;
  • Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts: To recognise effective writing, publishing, or photography or the use of radio, television, cinema, or the performing arts as a power for the public good;
  • Peace and International Understanding: To recognise contributions to the advancement of friendship, tolerance, peace, and solidarity as the foundations for sustainable development within and across countries; and
  • Emergent Leadership: To recognise an individual, forty years of age or younger, for outstanding work on issues of social change in his or her community but whose leadership may not yet be broadly recognised outside of this community.
• It is presented in formal ceremonies in Manila, Philippines, on August 31st, the birth anniversary of the much-esteemed Philippine President whose ideals inspired the Award’s creation in 1957.

Indian winners on the list

• Prominent Indians who have won the award include Vinoba Bhave in 1958, Mother Teresa in 1962, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay in 1966, Satyajit Ray in 1967, and Mahasweta Devi in 1997.
• In recent years, Arvind Kejriwal (2006), Anshu Gupta of Goonj (2015), human rights activist Bezwada Wilson (2016), and journalist Ravish Kumar (2019) have won the award.