A salute to the unsung Padma awardees

This year’s recipients gained recognition for their achievements — their silent social service stole the spotlight. Who can forget the viral videos and photos of barefoot, tribal environmentalist Tulasi Gowda, transgender folk dancer Manjamma Jogati and centenarian teacher Nanda Prusty blessing the president of India Ram Nath Kovind while receiving the Padma awards from him?
This year, the prestigious Padma Awards were given to 119 people for their distinguished services in various spheres including art and entertainment, science, literature and education, sports, social service, public affairs, trade and industry, civil service and sports. Of the 119, 102 received the Padma Shri; 10, Padma Bhushan; and 7, Padma Vibhushan.
Of course, well-known and elite recipients won the highest civilian honours, such as PV Sindhu, Mary Kom, SP Balasubramaniam, Adnan Sami, Kangana Ranaut, Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and George Fernandez among others (including posthumous awardees). But so were dozens of citizens from the grassroots who were recognised and honoured, for their silent contributions to society while living in obscurity.
Most of these unknown awardees hailed from a marginalised and extremely poor background but they all were determined to make a positive difference in the society, to people and the environment. As 2021 draws to an end, we recount their contributions and salute these silent heroes.

Matha B Manjamma Jogati
The transgender folk dancer who dodged every adversity
The 64-year-old transgender folk-dancer from Karnataka’s Bellari received the Padma Shri for her contribution to art — especially popularising the folk art forms. Born as Manjunatha Shetty, she was shunned by the family and was offered to the temple goddess as per traditions associated with transgender children. From begging on the streets, facing physical abuse and attempting suicide to finally to mastering the art of Jogathi Nrithya and performing across Karnataka, Matha B Manjamma Jogati lived a life of intense struggle. Despite tribulations, she went on to become the first transgender president of Karnataka Jaanapada (Folklore) Academy, a state government entity for performing arts.

Tulasi Gowda
The barefoot ‘Encyclopaedia of Forests’
The over 70-year-old Halakki tribal woman from Karnataka has planted over 30,000 saplings, spreading greenery around. She has no formal education, yet she knows all about nursery work and possesses knowledge about various plant species; no wonder this barefoot environmentalist is called the ‘Encyclopaedia of Forests.’ Tulsi has been associated with environmental conservation activities since she was a teenager. She received the Padma Shri award in the social service category.

Nanda Kishore Prusty
The teacher lighting up lives through literacy
This recipient of Padma Shri in the category of literature and education died on 07 December 2021 when he was 102. Determined to eradicate illiteracy from his village, the teacher from Kantira, Odisha, spent over 70 years providing free education to children and adults. Ironically, Nanda Kishore could study only till Class 7 because of his poor financial background. A villagers’ favourite, ‘Nanda sir’ as he was called, had also set up a non-formal makeshift school near his house to render primary education to children while teaching adults and senior citizens in the evenings.

Dulari Devi
From a house help to artist and illustrator
Born to an extremely poor Dalit family in Bihar, 53-year-old Dulari Devi was honoured with the Padma Shri Award for her contributions to art. Despite having no formal education and being married off by the age of 13, she picked up drawing and illustrating in the Madhubani or Mithila style of art while working as a domestic help in the house of a Madhubani artist Mahasundari Devi and soon became an artist and an illustrator in Madhubani. Eventually, her artworks, which combined community traditions and modern themes, were showcased at various exhibitions including at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Today, she teaches Madhubani art techniques to children.

R Pappammal
The oldest organic farmer
One among the nearly dozen farmers who’ve made it to the list of Padma Shri recipients is Tamil Nadu’s 105-year-old organic farmer R Pappammal (alias Rangammal), who’s believed to be the oldest active agriculturalist. Her paternal grandmother raised her and her two sisters in Thekkampatti, Coimbatore, after her parents died. She inherited a shop and opened an eatery. With the proceeds, she bought farmlands in the village. Also an elected Thekkampatti Panchayat ward member, she was associated with Tamil Nadu Agricultural Univearsity and ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra. She was conferred with the Padma Shri for her social engineering skills in promoting women in agricultural programmes and adapting modern technologies as well as new farming practices.

Lakhimi Baruah
The banker empowering women financially
The founder of Assam’s first women-run Konoklata Mahila Urban Cooperative Bank that provides credit to thousands of underprivileged women to bring a positive change to their lives, Lakshmi had lost her parents in childhood. She did her graduation after marriage and started working in a bank. Aiming to financially empower women and help them keep their earnings safely, she set up the cooperative bank for women at Jorhat in 2000. The bank, which was run by women staff, began with 1,500 members but has grown to 45,000 account holders. Apart from Padma Shri award this year in the Social Work category, she had also been the recipient of Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Award.

Birubala Rabha
Crusader against witch-hunting
The tribal human rights activist has been crusading against the evil practice of witch hunting in Goalpara, Assam. Since the 1980s, she’s been running Mission Birubala, an organisation spreading awareness against witch-hunting in different parts of Assam. She’s saved not only her young son who was branded as a witch in the 1980s, but also many women who were labelled and tortured as witches. Thanks to her campaigns and relentless efforts, the State Government passed the Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015. She was awarded Padma Shri in the social work category.

Harekala Hajabba
An orange vendor becomes the ‘Saint of Letters’
Called ‘Akshara Santa’ (Saint of Letters), the 65-year-old Padma Shri recipient in the category of social service was an orange vendor in Mangalore, Karnataka, with no formal education. He remembers how embarrassed he’d felt when a foreigner had asked him the price of the oranges. That day, he vowed to set up a school in his village Newpadapu, which had no schools then. He invested all his savings to set up a school in 2000, which welcomes poor students. The school has around 175 students with classes up to the 10th standard. Harekala Hajabba aspires to build an intermediate college in his village next.

Sindhutai Sapkal
A mother to the orphans
This 73-year-old social worker from Maharashtra’s Wardha District has nurtured around 1,500 orphans. Born on Children’s Day, she herself had been an unwanted child of a very poor family. She was married off at the age of 12. By the age 20, she was a mother-of-three and nine-months pregnant when she was thrown out of her home by her husband. She bore a baby girl and took to begging to survive, often spending nights at cemeteries. Finding many abandoned children on railway platforms, she decided to beg and feed them too. Recipient of several national and international awards, Sindhutai gradually set up several orphanages. Fondly called ‘Mai’ by hundreds of children whom she has adopted, the lady has a Marathi biopic Mee Sindhutai Sapkal based on her life story.