Rice bucket challenge pioneer gets U.N. award

Manju Latha handing over a bucket of rice to a beneficiary in Hyderabad.

Manjulatha Kalanidhi, a 38-year-old Hyderabad resident who created a buzz online by creating the ‘rice bucket challenge (based on the ALS ice bucket challenge), has been honoured with the Karmaveer Chakra Award and the Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship by iCONGO, an international confederation of NGOs, and the United Nations.

The awards are given for doing something small, yet significant, to make a difference in the world.

“The award shall be given to Ms. Manju on March, 23, 2015 at an august gathering in New Delhi, where she shall be felicitated and recognised as a Karmaveer Hero with some other heroes from around the world,” Jeroninio Almeida, founder of iCONGO

told The Hindu in an email.

Ms. Manjulatha’s initiative will be promoted by agencies in a global scale. Apart from this, she will be featured in the second edition of iCONGO’s book

Karma Kurry . The organisation is slated to sign a deal to sell 12 crore copies.

Speaking about the award, an excited Ms. Manjulatha said: “I’m extremely happy to learn that rice bucket challenge was chosen for Karmaveer Chakra Award and fellowship. I’m planning to associate with some NGOs such as Goonj and GiveIndia to channelize the charity potential and take the idea forward. This award would expand my horizon and give the necessary push to the initiative.”

There has been a tremendous response to the idea across the country and media within a week after

The Hindu broke the story on Ms. Manjulatha’s innovative way of feeding the poor. The web page has been viewed by over 5 lakh people and according to Ms. Manjulatha over 10,000 kg of rice has been donated to beneficiaries.

While Tollywood actor-cum-producer Pradeep has already distributed rice in a big way, Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra too endorsed the challenge in one of her recent interviews. The Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Goa, too has decided to do its bit for the initiative from September 2 to 7.