Mangaluru : City-based rationalist Narendra Nayak, who has travelled across India and the world exposing ‘miracles’ and spreading the message of scientific temper, has won the Lawrence Pinto Human Rights Award. It carries a purse of Rs. 1 lakh and is instituted by Friends of Lawry in memory of Lawrence Pinto, a trade union leader and cultural activist.

Describing Mr. Nayak as a ‘Godman debunker’ and a consumer protection activist, who founded the NGO, Aid Without Religion, the organisation credited him to have given 2,000 demonstrations in India, Australia, Greece and England showing how claims of miracles were hollow. “He is also a polyglot who speaks nine languages,” the organisation said.

Lawrence Pinto, who led Young Christian Workers Movement in Mangaluru, was also one of the founding members of Konkani Cultural organisation Mandd Sobhann. The organisation said that he had fought for the downtrodden.