INDIRA GANDHI PRIZE - AWARDS
News: Former Vice-president Hamid Ansari presented the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development of 2021 to Pratham, an NGO functioning in the field of education
What is in the news?
● The award is in recognition of Pratham’s work in ensuring quality education for children of the country, particularly during the pandemic.
About Indira Gandhi prize for peace, Disarmament and
Development:
●
The Indira Gandhi Prize
for Peace, Disarmament and Development was instituted in the memory of the
former prime minister by a trust
(Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust) in her name in 1986.
●
It consists of a monetary award of Rs 25 lakh along with a
citation.
●
The award is given to individuals or organizations who work
towards ensuring international peace and development, ensuring that
scientific discoveries are used to further the scope of freedom and better
humanity, and creating a new international economic order.
● First winner was Parliamentarians for global action in 1986.
About Pratham:
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Setup in 1995.
●
Founders: Mrs Farida
Lambay and Dr Madhav Chavan.
●
Place: Mumbai
● Its Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), based on surveying 6,00,000 rural Indian children, is now used as a model to assess educational outcomes and learning deficiencies in 14 countries over three continents.
Pratham is known for the following:
Mumbai Slums:
●
Pratham started by
holding balwadis (pre-education classes) for children in Mumbai's slums.
●
Volunteers were recruited
to teach in spaces within communities, including temples, offices, and even
people's homes.
● The Pratham pre-school classes multiplied and were replicated in other locations.
ASER:
●
Annual Status of
Education Report (or ASER), is a household-based
survey that collects information on children's schooling status and basic
learning outcomes in almost every rural district in the country.
●
The ASER survey is an
enormous participatory exercise that has involved about 500 organizations and upwards
of 25,000 volunteers every year since 2005.
●
As part of the survey,
estimates of children's schooling and learning status are generated at
district, state and national levels.
●
ASER is the only annual source of data on children's
learning outcomes available in India today, and is often credited with
changing the focus of discussions on education in India from inputs to
outcomes.
●
The ASER model has been
adapted for use by fourteen other countries across three continents. These
countries have organically come together to form the People's Action for
Learning (PAL) Network, with a secretariat housed in Nairobi.
●
Developing
low-cost innovations:
○ In
basic education, Pratham develops
low-cost and replicable innovations, working with the government and
engaging the community to improve learning outcomes. Its programmes now cover
children and young adults in 21 States.