Karnataka fruit seller Harekala Hajabba awarded Padma Shri

In January 2020, it was announced that Hajabba will receive the Padma Shri award. However, the ceremony was not conducted earlier due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

A 68-year-old fruit seller from Mangalore in Karnataka, Harekala Hajabba, has been awarded India's fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, from President Ram Nath Kovind for building a primary school with his earnings of Rs 150 per day. 

As he defines his journey, he mentioned, that many years ago, when a foreign tourist asked him the price of an orange in English, he did not understand what had been saying and felt embarrassed. He had not had the privilege of any kind of formal education. "That day I vowed to make a school," he said.

As per the Better India report, Harekala Hajabba's village Newpadapu did not have a school for many years. All the village children were deprived of their right to education. Then, in 2000, Harekala Hajabba invested all his life savings and started a school on one acre of land.

“I had never had the opportunity to access education, and I did not want the children in the village to suffer the same fate,” he said as quoted by The Better India. "Today, the school has 175 students with classes up to the 10th standard," he said.

In January 2020, it was announced that Hajabba will receive the Padma Shri award. However, the ceremony was not conducted earlier due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, President Ram Nath Kovind conferred Padma Awards at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The 2021 list of Padma Awards includes seven Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri Awards, of which 29 awardees are women and one awardee is a transgender person.

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