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Real life Rancho gets Ramon Magsaysay Award

Sonam Wangchuk, a Ladakh native, is among two Indians who have won this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award

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The ice stupa that Sonam Wangchuk (inset) created in Ladakh — Twitter
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Sonam Wangchuk, the 52-year-old engineer-turned-educator who inspired Aamir Khan's reel-life character of Phunsukh Wangdu in 3 Idiots, has made the country proud in real-life after he won this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, also known as Asian Nobel.

Wangchuk, a Ladakh native, is among two Indians who have won this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award. Bharat Vatwani is the second one who has won this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award.

"It is good for the people in mountains who fall in the category of minority. It is a good support for them and the work that we have been doing. People in the mountains, especially minorities, struggle to make things normal. It is a recognition of the work in such situation and in the harsh conditions," Wangchuk told DNA.

After earning his engineering degree, Wangchuk founded Students' Education and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) and started coaching Ladakhi student, 95 per cent of whom used to fail the government exams, according to the foundation.

"In electing Sonam Wangchuk to receive the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognises his uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving the life opportunities of Ladakhi youth, and his constructive engagement of all sectors in local society to harness science and culture creatively for economic progress, thus setting an example for minority peoples in the world," said the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation on its website.

Wangchuk is presently working to set up the first university in the cold desert of Ladakh to open up the scope of education to the people living in the cold desert.

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