Three Indians Get U.S. Award for Combating Violence against Women

Washington: Three brothers from India have received the prestigious Vital Voices Global Leadership Award from Vice President Joe Biden for their humanitarian working to end violence against women.

The three, Ravi, Rishi and Nishi Kant, who started the nongovernmental organization Shakti Vahini to fight injustice against women in 2001, received a "Solidarity Award" for their work at the annual Kennedy Centre event.

"Getting women's groups to accept that men are leading our organization was a challenge," Ravi Kant, 45, a Supreme Court advocate in India and president of Shakti Vahini, told the Washington Post. "But we continued our work, and the support from women's activists came."

Vital Voices, which was started by former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 1997, upholds Shakti Vahini as a glowing example of how a group of men can and should work on women's issues.

Leading a staff of 45, Kants believe they are witnessing a sea change, not only for victims of violent rapes, but also for victims of human trafficking since the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman from Delhi on a bus last December galvanised India and led to the passage of a tough law on sexual harassment.

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