Alternative Nobel for Fighting for Rights of Landless

The 82-year-old Krishnammal Jagannathan and her 95-year-old husband Sankaralingam were awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize for their lifetime achievement working for the rights of the deprived in India -- especially those of the lower caste Dalits.

In 1981, the couple founded “Land for the Tillers' Freedom”, which strives to provide land to the landless poor in Nagapattinam in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The organisation shares the award with German-based gynaecologist Monika Hauser, the founder of Medica Mondiale, Amy Goodman, the US founder and host of alternative radio and television show "Democracy Now" and Asha Hagi, a women's rights activist from Somalia.