Lakshmi Chand Jain passes away

Noted Gandhian, freedom fighter, former bureaucrat and Magsaysay Award winner Lakshmi Chand Jain passed away on Sunday after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 85. He is survived by his wife and two sons.



A fierce opponent of overwhelming state control and an ardent advocate of social action, Jain was closely associated with the Quit India Movement and organised refugee camps during Partition. Post independence, he was devoted to the cause of fighting corruption. His efforts to keep alive the legacy of the freedom struggle through the intervention of civil society led to him being awarded the Magsaysay Award in 1988 for “his informed and selfless commitment to attack India's poverty at the grass-roots level.”



“He was an outstanding social worker and was deeply committed to poverty alleviation and improving the status of the downtrodden. He was an intellectual and was deeply involved in improving the conditions of the poor,” C Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council said.