President Ram Nath Kovind last week presented Padma Awards to the achievers honoured in 2020 for having spent years making a difference to the masses or contributing to their respective fields and disciplines. Among those handed the Padma medallion and ‘sanad’ at the Civil Investiture Ceremony, held almost one and-a-half years after it had got postponed due to Covid outbreak, included the late Union ministers George Fernandes, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj; as well as actress Kangana Ranaut, film producers Karan Johar and Ekta Kapoor, boxing champion M C Mary Kom and two time Olympic medalist P V Sindhu.
Among the awardees are Gujarati actress Sarita Joshi, Gujarati humorist Shahbuddin Rathod, Guajrati Parsi theatre artist Yazdi Karqanjia, Nadiad-based educationist H M Desi, Gujarati businessman Gafurbhai Bilakhia and Gujarat based IIT Gandhinagar director Sudhir Jain.
The awardees for 2020 include former President and PM of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth (posthumous), Sri Vishveshateertha Swamiji Sri Pejavara Adhokhaja Matha Udupi (posthumous), classical singer Chhannulal Mishra (all conferred the Padma Vibhushan); Padma Bhushan winners Manohar Parrikar (posthumous), industrialists Anand Mahindra and Venu Srinivasan, former Nagaland CM S C Jamir and J&K politician Muzaffar Hussain Baig; and retired DG medical services, Air Force, Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay, who was handed the Padma Shri by President Kovind amid loud applause.
Some heroes who have spent a lifetime in social service and were conferred Padma Shri in 2020 include Abdul Jabbar Khan, who has been doing advocacy for victims of Bhopal gas tragedy for past three decades despite having lost his family and 50% of own vision to the poisonous gas leak; Usha Chaumar, head of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation; Harekala Hajabba, an illiterate fruit vendor from Karnataka who has been providing affordable education to poor children; Arunoday Mondal, a doctor from West Bengal who treats patients in the remote Sundarbans; Ravi Kannan, an oncologist from Chennai who treats cancer patients in Assam’s Barak Valley; S Ramakrishnan, a specially-abled social worker who has rehabilitated over 14,000 speciallyabled people in Tamil Nadu; and Rajasthan environmentalist Sundaram Verma who has planted 50,000 trees.
