Bawa Jain (bornPreminder Nath Jain February 16, 1957)[citation needed] is an Indian advocate forinterfaith dialogue.
Jain was secretary-general of theMillennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held in New York City in 2000.[1][2][3][4]
Jain co-founded the Religious Initiative of theWorld Economic Forum,[5] and is the creator of the Gandhi–King Award for Non-Violence.[6] He launched the World Council of Religious Leaders (WCORL) Religion One on One Initiative.[7]
Bawa Jain was responsible for commencing the opening of theUnited Nations General Assembly during their Annual Interfaith Services in New York from 1998 – 1999.[8] During his time at the UN, Jain founded the World Movement for Nonviolence in January 1998. As founder of The World Movement for Nonviolence, he conceived TheGandhi-King Award, which honors those who exemplify the lives and legacies ofMahatma Gandhi andMartin Luther King. Past recipients include formerUnited Nations Secretary GeneralKofi Annan, PresidentNelson Mandela, DameJane Goodall,Mata Amritanandamayi and PresidentMwai Kibaki.[9] Jain was a founding co-chair of the Values Caucus.[10] This caucus was founded in anticipation of theWorld Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen in 1995.[10] After the World Summit for Social Development, Jain became an initiator and co-chair alongsideBella Abzug to create the Coalition of the Caucuses which followed in depth involvement with the U.N. World Summit for Social Development in order to promote unity.[11]
Jain founded The Centre for Responsible Leadership, “a global initiative to mobilize people of influence who have and are willing to make decisions that seek to be in the larger interests of all, rather than to benefit a few.” One of the first initiatives was the convening of a “Sustainable Development Leadership Summit” at theUnited Nations in early 2019.[12]
The Centre for Responsible Leadership co-hosted an international event withJohn’s Hopkins and theClinton Foundation dealing with the current overdose crisis: "Bridging Faith and Science to Combat the Overdose Crisis: Finding solutions to theopioid epidemic at the intersection of religious faith and science."[13]
Jain was a featured speaker at the September 2021Tedx Talks USF where he spoke on “Restoring Civility to Public Discourse.[14]
Jain was a featured speaker at the May 2025TEDxTampa event[15]
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