New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) India's Arvind Kejriwal has been named the winner of the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for emergent leadership for "empowering New Delhi's poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding government accountable to the people", it was announced Monday.

In the citation, the Manila-based awards committee said: "The brazen corruption of the high and the mighty may grab headlines, but for ordinary people it is the ubiquity of everyday corruption that weighs heaviest. And that demoralises. Arvind Kejriwal, founder of India's Parivartan, understands this, which is why his campaign for change begins with the small things.

"As a tax officer with the Indian Revenue Service, Arvind Kejriwal became aware of the many powers that tax officials held over private citizens and how easily these powers could be abused. Indeed, at the tax department, one expected to pay bribes as a matter of course. With a few kindred spirits, Kejriwal began to strategize about how to bring an end to this."

Under the Right to Information Act, every citizen possesses the right to inspect government documents. The 38-year-old Kejriwal put the new law to use in Sundernagari, a New Delhi slum where Parivartan was working among the poor.

First, the group obtained official reports on all recent public works projects in the area. Then it led residents in a "social audit" of 68 projects, stirring the community to action with neighbourhood meetings and street plays.

Then, in a large public hearing, the residents presented their findings and exposed misappropriations in 64 of the projects - embezzlement to the tune of Rs.7 million! Today, in Sundernagari, local committees monitor public-works projects block by block, and no project may begin until the details of the contract have been made public.

The other winners are: Eugenia Duran Apostol of Philippines (Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts), Ek Sonn Chandigarh of Cambodia (government service), Park Won Soon of South Korea (public service), Antonio Meloto of Philippines (community leadership), Sanduk Ruit of Nepal (international understanding) and Gawad Kalinga (Community leadership).

The awards would be presented Aug 31 in Manila.