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Indian doctor awarded Kellogg's
World of Children Award

Dharam Shourie in New York

Four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr Sharadkumar Dicksheet has been awarded the $ 100,000 Kellogg's Hannah Neil World of Children Award.

Dicksheet - who is partially disabled - has been awarded in recognition of his dedication to provide free corrective surgery to the poorest of poor children in India.

Dicksheet, 71, has survived a partially paralysing car accident and two heart attacks that have left him with only 17 per cent residual heart capacity.

Despite the challenges in his own life, Dicksheet boards a plane to India every year to fulfil the mission he began in 1968: 'The India Project - Plastic Surgery Camp'.

Presenting the award, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, said: "Dr Dicksheet is determined to give physically scarred children in India a new start in life. The difference he makes in the lives of these children and their families is immeasurable."

Dicksheet said he will put the entire prize money into his India Project trust fund.

Each surgery costs about $ 150 in supplies and transportation and $ 100,000 would provide for 600 surgeries, he said.

Dr Dicksheet's plastic surgery camp sites are operational throughout India from October to March each year. Camps are held in the poorest regions of India in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam.

PTI

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