New York: A young Indian has won the prestigious Global Citizen Award and $100,000 cash prize for his work to build community sanitation facilities, an area that aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to ending open defecation, organisers of the award said.
Anoop Jain was named recipient of the 2014 Waislitz Global Citizen Award for his “exemplified values of a Global Citizen” through his work in founding Humanure Power (HP) in Bihar in 2011.
The announcement of the award co-incided with Modi’s recent visit here when he addressed thousands of people at the Global Citizen Festival last week in Central Park.
The organisation said Jain’s work through Humanure Power aligns with Modi’s commitment to put a toilet in every household and school in India by 2019 – a commitment he reiterated in his remarks on stage at the citizen festival.
Humanure Power has already seen over 17,000 users, while hygienically disposing of eight tonnes of human excreta.
Such effort would help prevent disease and improve productivity as toilets prevent water-borne diseases caused by fecal contamination, which affects broader health, social, and economic change desperately needed in India.
“Ending extreme poverty is not a choice it’s an obligation. Although there can only be one winner of this award each year, my hope is that it will inspire many thousands of people like Anoop Jain around the world to do what they can to improve the living standards of those in dire need,” Chairman and Founder of the Melbourne-based Waislitz Foundation Alex Waislitz said.
Jain’s company would use the $100,000 to advance its mission of improving access to toilets for thousands of people living in rural India by building more community sanitation facilities. In addition, the money would go towards formalizing their monitoring and evaluation methods.
Jain was among the four finalists for the award, which is based on individual merit in four key areas of global citizenship, impact, innovation, and potential.
He was chosen the winner after getting the maximum votes by people from across the world.
Among the other finalists was another young Indian Swapnil Chaturvedi who founded ‘Samagra Sanitation’ which focussed on providing “awesome sanitation services to the urban poor” in India.
Anoop graduated from Northwestern University in 2009 with a degree in Environmental Engineering. After working as an engineer for a year, he quit his job after raising $30,000 to build a community soup kitchen for Tibetan Refugees in northern India.
It was then, in the summer of 2010, that Anoop realized the importance of improved public health as a means of empowerment.
Anoop witnessed thousands of Indians defecating outside. Partnered with local community activists and dear friends, Chandan and Prabin, he started Humanure Power.
Anoop Jain is the founder and director of Humanure Power. He has put together an amazing team, which has helped the organization raise over $120,000 since 2012 from the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, private donations, and a fellowship from Echoing Green.
Humanure Power fights alongside communities to end outdoor defecation as a key step in an ongoing struggle for health equity and social and economic justice.
Anoop is committed to making toilets a right, not just a privilege.
With PTI inputs