Pune’s Ashok Dyalchand among eight nominees for World’s Children’s Prize award for decade

Ghana's James Kofi Annan and Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai are some of the other nominees for the prestigious award given by the World's Children's Prize Foundation (WCPF) of which the previous recipient was Nelson Mandela.

4 min readPuneUpdated: May 19, 2022 11:59 AM IST

"I feel extremely humbled as I share space with amazing heroes like Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan, James Kofi Annan from Ghana and others,” Dyalchand said.

Someone who campaigns against child marriages and for girls’ rights in India through his Institute of Health Management Pachod (IHMP), 74-year-old Dr Ashok Dyalchand from Pune is among the eight nominees for the World’s Children’s Prize Decade Child Rights Hero.

Ghana’s James Kofi Annan and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai are some of the other nominees for the prestigious award given by the World’s Children’s Prize Foundation (WCPF) of which the previous recipient was Nelson Mandela.

“I feel extremely humbled as I share space with amazing heroes like Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan, James Kofi Annan from Ghana and others,” Dyalchand told The Indian Express as he leaves for Sweden where the winner of the award, chosen through a global vote among children, will be announced by Queen Sylvia of Sweden.

Murhabazi Namegabe from Congo-Kinshasa, Anna Mollel from Tanzania, Phymean Noun from Cambodia, Manuel Rodrigues from Guinea Bissau and Rachel Lloyd from the United States make up the list of eight nominees who had won the World’s Children’s Prize by the WCD during the period 2011-19. Dr Dyalchand won the prize, also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize, in 2019.

Dr Dyalchand from the 1965 batch of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, initially worked in villages of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh after his postgraduate studies in ophthalmology. He gained extensive experience when he joined a mobile eye hospital and got an insight into the many trials of life in rural India caused by severe social and economic marginalisation. He later switched from ophthalmology to public health and worked at a mission hospital at Pachod in Maharashtra.

In the last 45 years, Dr Dyalchand has been fighting tirelessly against child marriage and for girls’ equal rights and set up the IHMP where his teams have been providing health services to women, children and adolescent girls.

In 1998, a large-scale study conducted in central Maharashtra indicated that over 80 per cent of adolescent girls were getting married at a median age of 14.4 years and were becoming teenage mothers. This was resulting in significantly higher maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity, it was found.
In the last 45 years, Dr Dyalchand has been fighting tirelessly against child marriage and for girls’ equal rights and set up the IHMP where his teams have been providing health services to women, children and adolescent girls.

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Dr Dyalchand decided to bring about a change and set up girls’ clubs to end the practice of child marriage and provided them with life skills. The IHMP scaled up sexual and reproductive health programme for married adolescent girls in five districts of Maharashtra. The external evaluation findings indicated a significant reduction in maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, an increase in the utilisation of contraceptives to delay first birth and a reduction in the prevalence of preterm and low-weight babies at birth. The findings were published in The Lancet which said how focussed community-based interventions implemented by frontline health workers result in rapid improvement and coverage of reproductive health services among married adolescent girls and how replication of this strategy was feasible.

“The aim has been to empower girls. Over 100,000 adolescent girls have benefitted from this programme… The recent National Family Health Survey-5 data indicates that 23 per cent of girls get married before 18 years. This is an average for rural, urban slum and urban general populations. In Maharashtra what the average does not reveal is the fact that the variation among districts and urban slums ranges from 4 per cent to 60 per cent. We still have a lot to do,” he said.

Since the launch of the WCPF in 2000, at least 46 million children have participated in the World’s Children’s Prize programme. More than 74,000 schools in 119 countries support the WCPF. In the global vote, millions of children select the winner of the prestigious award for outstanding work for the rights of children, according to CEO Magnus Bergmar.

Anuradha Mascarenhas

Anuradha Mascarenhas is a Senior Editor at The Indian Express, based in Pune. With a career spanning three decades, she is one of the most respected voices in Indian journalism regarding healthcare, science and environment and research developments. She also takes a keen interest in covering women's issues . Professional Background Education: A gold medalist in Communication and Journalism from Savitribai Phule Pune University and a Master’s degree in Literature. Author: She authored the biography At The Wheel Of Research, which chronicles the life and work of Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the former Chief Scientist at the WHO. Key Focus: She combines scientific accuracy with storytelling, translating complex medical research into compelling public and human-interest narratives. Awards and Recognition Anuradha has won several awards including the Press Council of India's national award for excellence in journalism under the gender based reporting category in 2019 and the Laadli Media award (gender sensitivity -2024). A recipient of the Lokmat journalism award (gender category-2022), she was also shortlisted for the RedInk awards for excellence in journalism-2021. Her debut book At The Wheel Of Research, an exclusive biography of Dr Soumya Swaminathan the inaugural chief scientist of World Health Organisation was also nominated in the Popular Choice Category of JK Paper AUTHER awards. She has also secured competitive fellowships including the Laadli Media Fellowship (2022), the Survivors Against TB – New Research in TB Media Fellowship (2023) and is part of the prestigious 2025 India Cohort of the WomenLift Health Leadership Journey.” Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) 1. Cancer & Specialized Medical Care "Tata Memorial finds way to kill drug-resistant cancer cells" (Nov 26, 2025): Reporting on a breakthrough for triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of the disease. Discipline, diet and purpose; How a 97-year-old professor defies ageing'' (Nov 15, 2025) Report about Prof Gururaj Mutalik, the first Head of Department at Pune's B J Government Medical College who at 97 credits his longevity to healthy habits and a strong sense of purpose. 2. Environmental Health (The "Breathless Pune" Series) Long-term exposure even to 'moderate' air leads to chronic heart, lung, kidney issues" (Nov 26, 2025): Part of an investigative series highlighting that even "safe" pollution levels are damaging to vital organs. "For every 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 level, there was 6-8% jump in medicine sales" (Nov 23, 2025): Using commercial data to prove the direct link between air quality and respiratory illnesses in Pune. 3. Lifestyle & Wellness News "They didn't let cancer, diabetes and heart disease stop them from travelling" (Dec 22, 2025): A collaborative piece featuring survivors who share practical tips for traveling with chronic conditions. At 17, his BP shot up to 200/120 mmHG; Lancet study flags why child and teen hypertension doubled between 2000 and 2020'' (Nov 12,2025)--A report that focusses on 17-year-old-boy's hypertensive crisis and reflects the rising global trend of high blood pressure among children and adolescents. 4. Scientific Recognition & Infrastructure For promoting sci-comm, gender diversity: IUCAA woman prof highlighted in Nature" (Nov 25, 2025): Covering the global recognition of Indian women scientists in gender studies and physics. Pune researchers find a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way from early universe'' (December 3, 2025)- A report on how Indian researchers discovered a massive galaxy that existed when the universe was just 1.5 billion years old , one of the earliest to have been observed so far. Signature Beat: Health, Science & Women in Leadership Anuradha is known for her COVID-19 reportage, where she was one of the first journalists to provide detailed insights into the Covishield and Covaxin trials. She has a dedicated interest in gender diversity in health and science, often profiling women researchers who are breaking the "leaky pipeline" in STEM fields. Her writing style is scrupulous, often featuring interviews with top-tier scientists and health experts from various institutions. ... Read More

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