<br/>Dr. Mohd. Hanif Khan Shastri and the Center for Human Rights and Social Welfare, Rajasthan have been selected for the National Communal Harmony Award for the year 2009. The Jury headed by the Vice-President selected the awardee in recognition of their contribution for the promotion of Communal Harmony.<br/><br/>Dr. Mohd. Hanif Khan Shastri, 58, is a learned Sanskrit scholar. His publications are considered as masterpiece by cross section of academicians and scholars. Dr. Shastri has endeavored to promote communal harmony by highlighting similarities between Hindu and Muslim religions through his unique literary contributions in Hindi and Sanskrit.<br/><br/>The Center for Human Rights & Social Welfare, registered in 1976, is a social organisation working for communal harmony, human rights, welfare of the homeless persons, women, footpath dwellers, rehabilitation of needy and deprived persons.<br/><br/>The Center has campaigned against terrorism and has been organising programmes like ‘Dil se suno’ and ‘Garima samvad’ to sensitize the people on the rights of the homeless persons. The organisation has actively participated in the rehabilitation work of the victims of bomb blasts that occurred in Jaipur city in May 2008.<br/><br/>In addition to a citation in each category, the award carries a cash award of five lakh rupees for the Organisation and two lakh rupees for the Individual categories respectively.<br/>