The three, Ravi, Rishi and Nishi Kant, who started the nongovernmental organization Shakti Vahini to fight injustice against women in 2001, received a "Solidarity Award" for their work at the annual Kennedy Centre event Tuesday.

"Getting women's groups to accept that men are leading our organization was a challenge," Ravi Kant, 45, a Supreme Court advocate in India and president of Shakti Vahini, told the Washington Post. "But we continued our work, and the support from women's activists came."