The primary screening was undertaken by the journalists' panel of Prothom Alo. Eighty entries were selected out of 2,933 from all over the country. Finally the top 10 dedicated people were selected for the prestigious award. A television programmed based on the life and times of the 10 finalists, Shada Moner Manush has been telecast on ntv recently.

The programme had an expert panel of judges, consisting of civil society members from our country such as Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD); Rokia Afzal Rahman, former advisor to the caretaker government and Motiur Rahman, editor of the Prothom Alo.

The 10 recipients of the honour are Hanufa Begum known as the 'Mother Teresa of Bagachra' (Jessore); Binapani Sarkar for her initiatives to educate the underprivileged indigenous children of Joypurhaat; Abdul Majid of Puthiya, Rajshahi for setting an establishment for differently-abled children; Abdul Malek Howlader from Madaripur for tirelessly working with the local children at his pathshala despite his financial constraints; Shamsuddin for

setting up an orphanage in Shorer Haat village in Rajshahi; Sufia Ahmed for running the Rajshahi Cancer and Children's Centre on her own expense; Sri Kanu Dutta from Feni for performing last rites of 1589 unclaimed corpses; Mokhlesur Rahman in Comilla for dedicating his life to the local Nazrul Academy High School; Ziaul Haq, a yoghurt vendor from Mushribhuja village in Chapai Nawabganj, for setting up a library with 8,000 books for disadvantaged students and Harun-ur-Rashid from East Jagannathpur village in Dinajpur for giving the local children the gift of music, training artistes who have received national and international acclaim.

These Shada Moner Manush will be introduced to the media as they receive their awards on February 2.