JAN SAHAS of Madhya Pradesh and Sr. Dr. Mary Litty jointly shares the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award – 2012.
Jan Sahas Social Development Society popularly known as ‘JAN SAHAS’, a social development movement working among the dalit and the deprived community in Dewas of Madhya Pradesh and Sr. Dr. Mary Litty, a social worker committed in protecting and promoting the human dignity of unwanted children in Kunnamthanam of Kerala have been selected to share the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award 2012 of the Vigil India Movement, Bangalore.
A three member Jury - Justice Shri. K.A. Swamy, (former Chief Justice of Madras High Court) Mr. Peter Lynn Sinai (former Ambassador) and Dr. Mathews George Chunakara (Director, CCIA, World Council of Churches, Geneva) unanimously selected ‘JAN SAHAS’ and Sr. Dr. Mary Litty for the award from among the nominations received from various parts of the Country.
‘JAN SAHAS’ which is working among the dalits and deprived community in Madhya Pradesh has been doing enormous work in the area of protecting and ensuring human dignity to the Manual Scavengers, the Dalits and the Landless people and fighting on their behalf several cases in the Courts and rehabilitating them and bringing them into the mainstream of the society. Jan Sahas started as a small group to support the Manual Scavengers in 2000 and gradually established as a movement to protect and promote the rights of the deprived marginalized community.
Sr. Dr. Mary Litty founded the Little Servants of the Divine Providence in 1988 to take care of the Children and elders on the streets and she has been doing commendable service in as much as she has undertaken in protecting and promoting the human dignity of the physically challenged persons and poor children who are denied of their right to life and rejected by their own parents.
Vigil India Movement instituted the M A Thomas National Human Rights Award in 1994 in memory of its Founder President Late Dr. M.A. Thomas. The Award with One Lakh of Rupees and a Citation will be given away by the Governor of Karnataka, His Excellency Dr. Hans Raj Bhardwaj at an award ceremony to be held in Bangalore on the 10th August, 2012, the birth anniversary of the Founder.