Haryana para archer Harvinder, HP apple grower among 30 unsung heroes conferred Padma Shri
Harvinder Singh, para archer from Haryana’s Kaithal, is among 30 unsung heroes conferred with the Padma Shri on Saturday.
Harvinder (33) became the first Indian to win gold in the Paralympic Games, one gold in 2024 Paris Paralympic and one Bronze in 2020 Tokyo Paralympic. He is also a motivational speaker on drug awareness.
Also representing the region in the list is Himachal Pradesh’s Hariman Sharma, an apple farmer from Bilaspur credited with developing a low chilling apple variety which grows at an altitude of 1,800 feet above sea level, the first-of-its-kind innovation.
The list unveiled by the government ahead of the full Padma honours list features crusaders from various walks of life, who have struggled and achieved silently, away from the limelight.
Among the awardees are Libia Lobo Sardesai, a centenarian freedom fighter who played a pivotal role in Goa’s liberation from Portuguese colonial rule, Jaipur’s Batool Begum famous for Rajasthani folk art, Maand, Bheemavva Shillekyathara, an illiterate master puppeteer practising traditional shadow puppetry of Karnataka and one of the first woman puppeteers who took up the art as a 14 year old and Parmar Nagjibhai, a weaver from Dangala community dedicated to preserving a 700 year old weaving tradition in Gujarat.
The two foreign nationals in the list are Jonas Masetti, a spiritual leader from Brazil, instrumental in popularising Vedanta and Shaikha Sabah, a yoga practitioner from Kuwait who founded Daratma, Kuwait’s first licensed yoga studio.
Neerja Bhatla, a cervical cancer crusader and head of department of obstetrics & gynaecology, AIIMS, New Delhi; Bihar’s Bhim Singh Bhavesh, a dedicated social worker from Bhojpur working for the uplift of Musahar community, one of society’s most marginalised group; Puducherry’s P Dhatchanamoorthy, instrumental in specialising in Thavil, a classical percussion instrument vital to South Indian music and culture; Nagaland’s L Hangthing, called the Noklak’s fruit man with over 30 years of expertise in cultivating non-native fruits; Uttarakhand’s Hugh and Colleen Gantzer, travel bloggers who have pioneered Indian ravel journalism; MP’s Jagdish Joshila, an author in Nimadi and Hindi from Koregaon, who he founded the Nimadi prose literature and is the first Nimadi novelist are others on the list of exceptional Indians.
The others include Bheru Singh Chauhan, a prolific Nirgun folk singer rooted in the traditional Malvi folk style (from MP); Naren Gurung, a versatile folk artist from Gangtok promoting Sikkimese Nepali folk music and dance traditions (Sikkim); Jumde Gamlin, dedicated to deaddiction in Arunachal Pradesh; Vilas Dangre, 70 year old visually impaired homeopath who treats the poor (Maharashtra) and Venkappa Sugatekar, Gondhali folk maestro from the nomadic society of Karnataka.
Nirmal Devi, the oldest pioneer of Sujani embroidery from Bihar, Joynacharan Bathari, an 84 year old senior most flag bearer of Dimasa tribal art from Assam, Suresh Soni, founder of Sahyog Kushtha Yagna Trust working for leprosy patients in Gujarat, Radha Bahin Bhatt, a leading Gandhian from Uttarakhand and Pandi Ram Mandavi, 68-year-old master instrument maker and wood carver from Gond Muria tribe who has been bringing tribal melodies to life through his craft (Chhattisgarh) are also on the list of unsung Padma Shri winners along side Chaitram Pawar, who conserved 400 hectares of forest and Vijayalakshmi Deshmane, veteran cancer surgeon from Karnataka.
