New Delhi: Indian social activist Nikhil Dey was named the International Anti-Corruption Champion for 2023 along with 10 others by the US State Department Thursday. He received this recognition for his work in building “peasant and worker empowerment campaigns” to expose corruption in the delivery of government services.
The International Anti-Corruption Champions Award, which was launched in 2021, recognises people who fight for accountability, the rule of law, and press freedom.
Dey, along with 10 others, was given the award by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at an event in Washington, D.C. on 7 December.
In a statement Thursday, the US State Department said, “For the past 35 years, activist Nikhil Dey has championed policy reforms to empower workers in India. He and his counterparts have brought to light official corruption, such as the underpayment of workers on official projects, and built peasant and worker empowerment campaigns targeting corruption in the delivery of government services.”
“The United States stands with champions like Dey who work for transparency, rule of law, and justice,” the US ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, said in a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) Friday.
Congratulations to Nikhil Dey, a founding member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, for being named an International Anticorruption Champion by the @StateDept. The United States stands with champions like Dey who work for transparency, rule of law, and justice.… pic.twitter.com/tSGUXcP64j
— U.S. Ambassador Eric Garcetti (@USAmbIndia) December 8, 2023
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Co-founder of MKSS and NCPRI
Dey (60) is the co-founder of the Mazdoor Kishan Shakti Sangthan (MKSS), a Rajasthan-based organisation that has been working with villagers to strengthen participatory democratic processes for over three decades.
From demanding minimum wages for workers to exposing corruption, Dey has been part of several movements to make government service delivery more transparent and accountable.
He is also a founder of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), set up in 1996 to push for legal provisions for citizens’ Right to Information (RTI).
The campaign for the Right to Information was born out of the MKSS’s struggle to ensure that all workers receive minimum wages. Dey, along with noted social activist Aruna Roy and others, was instrumental in building a people’s movement that led to the passage of the Right of Information Act in 2005.
He has also been associated with several campaigns, such as the Right to Food, the Right to Work, employment guarantee to rural workers, and the Lokpal Bill, among others.
Leader of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha
In his over decade-long career, Dey has been a part of several campaigns for the welfare of workers to push for payment of minimum wages to employment guarantee.
He has also been at the forefront of the protest by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a collective of NREGA workers’ organisations opposed to the central government’s decision to implement real-time attendance through the National Mobile Monitoring System and the decision to make Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) mandatory for settling wages.
Activists say these decisions have adversely impacted lakhs of workers dependent on MGNREGA.
Earlier this year, thousands of workers staged a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi demanding the rollback of the two decisions.
Dey along with others played a crucial role in prompting the government to extend the deadline for making the ABPS mandatory for settling wages till December end.
Speaking to ThePrint in August, Dey had termed the decision to introduce ABPS “illegal”.
“Twenty percent of over 14 crore workers are still not eligible for payment through ABPS; it is a huge number. Preventing payment of wages is illegal, according to the MGNREGA. The 2005 Act says that anyone who demands work must get work,” he said at the time.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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