Gone are the days when one of India’s highest civilian honours, the Padma Shri award, was a matter of political lobbying. For the last three to four years, the scenario has been completely changed, and unsung heroes who brought a change in the society at the grass route level are receiving this honour. The list of Padma Shri award winners 2021 is an ideal example of it.
This happened because ordinary citizens are given the option to nominate others for the Padma Awards. Only union ministers, ministers of state, chief ministers, governors, members of parliament, past recipients, and influential people may propose others for the awards previously. As a result, lobbying became widely accepted. The accusation could not be proven or denied because it was an offline process. From a fruit seller who built a school to a man who cures elephants and a transgender dancer, the Padma Shri Award Winners 2021 list includes numerous lesser-known names that have come as a whiff of fresh air.
List of India’s Lesser-known Padma Shri Award Winners 2021
| Padma Shri Award Winner | State | Achievement |
| Bhuri Bai | Madhya Pradesh | First Bhil painter to transfer mud wall paintings to big canvases |
| Radhe Shyam Barle | Chhattisgarh | Panthi folk dancer with 5000+ performances on social issues |
| Lakhimi Baruah | Assam | A social worker who established Assam’s first women-run cooperative bank |
| Biren Kumar Basak | West Bengal | Tangail & Jamdani Saree weaver who portrayed Indian culture and mythology on sarees |
| Rajni Bector | Punjab | Created a world-class enterprise from kitchen scratch |
| Sangakhumi Bualchhuak | Mizoram | Empowered Mizo women by promoting education and legal reforms |
| Gopiram Bargayan | Assam | Nourished traditional Sattriya music for 70 years |
| Sujit Chatterjee | West Bengal | A village school teacher spent decades spreading education in tribes |
| Jagdish Chaudhary | Uttar Pradesh | Dom Raja of Kashi – carried forward the legacy of the king of cremators |
| Chultim Chonjor | Ladakh | Constructed a 38 Km road Single-handedly in the Kargil region |
| Narayan Debnath | West Bengal | A veteran cartoonist famous for his popular comic strip ‘Handa Bhonda.’ |
| Chutni Mahto | Jharkhand | Single-handedly saved 60 tribal women from witch-hunting |
| Dulari Devi | Bihar | The self-made artist rose from being a dai to an esteemed ‘Maithili’ Painter |
| Hanjabam Ongbi Radhe Sharmi | Manipur | Potloi-Setpi weaver who kept the endangered Potloi art alive. |
| Shanti Devi | Odisha | A social worker serving the poor in the Maoist-hit Rayagada region in Odisha |
| Dadudan Gadhavi | Gujrat | Gujrati folk writer known for his spiritual poetry and songs |
| Parashuram Vishram Gangavane | Maharashtra | Marathi folk artist who preserved 500 years old art of Chitrakathi Storytelling |
| Jai Bhagwan Goyal | Haryana | Hindi litterateur who discovered 17th to 19th century Hindi literary work in Gurumukhi manuscript |
| Jagdish Chandra Halder | West Bengal | Spiritual author |
| Mangal Singh Hazowary | Assam | Bodo poet, known for his 40+ years of contribution to Bodo literature |
| Anshu Jamsenpa | Arunachal Pradesh | World’s Fastest women mountaineer to climb Mt Everest |
| Puranmasi Jani | Odisha | Tribal singer and social activist- sung thousands of songs on social issues |
| Manjamma Jogati | Karnataka | Transgender folk dancer and first transwomen president of Karnataka Janapada Academy |
| Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri | Kerala | Malayali lyricists who have written 1500 songs, run a music school |
| Namdeo C Kamble | Maharashtra | Marathi writer, teacher and journalist who published over 15 novels and story collections |
| Mahesh Kanodia Naresh Kanodia | Gujrat | Gujarati folk singer duo worked in more than 100 movies |
| Rajat Kumar Kar | Odisha | Longest living commentator of Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra |
| Rangasami Laxminarayan Kashyap | Karnataka | A Vedic scholar who translated Vedas into English |
| Prakash Kaur | Punjab | Social worker taking care of abandoned girls for more than 30 years |
| K Kesavasamy | Puducherry | String Puppeteer performing for social causes |
| Ghulam Rasool Khan | Jammu & Kashmir | Jamawar patchwork artist who preserved oldest Kashmiri shawl technique |
| Lakha Khan | Rajasthan | Manganiyar folk singer- one of few remaining legends of Sindhi Sarangi |
| Vinayak Vishnu Khedekar | Goa | Folk art revivalist who preserved Konkan’s Gwada tribe culture for more than 60 years |
| Niru Kumar | Delhi | Overcome Polio to become a doctor and worked around 30 years for women empowerment |
| Lajwanti | Punjab | Handloom artist promoting Phulkari embroidery for more than 40 years |
| Ali Manikfan | Lakshadweep | Multi-talented marine researcher, ecologist, agriculture expert and multilingual |
| Ramchandra Manjhi | Bihar | Naach folk dancer, keeping the legacy of Grameen Natak alive for 80 years |
| Dulal Manki | Assam | The folk singer is known as Jhumar Samrat |
| Nanandro B Marak | Meghalaya | Black pepper farmer promoting organic farming in surrounding areas |
| Rewben Mashangva | Manipur | Father of Naga folk blues who preserved Tangkhul Naga musical heritage |
| Chandrakant Mehta | Gujrat | Port and writer having credit of more than 150 books |
| Rattan Lal Mittal | Punjab | An orthopaedic surgeon who invented numerous instruments |
| O M Nambiar | Kerala | An athletic coach who groomed several sports personalities in India |
| Shyam Sundar Paliwal | Rajasthan | Sarpanch of model village Piplantri is known for his work for water conservation and girl child empowerment |
| Pappammal | Tamilnadu | One hundred five years old organic farmer – growing a range of pulses and vegetables for 90 years. |
| Krishna Mohan Pathi | Odisha | People’s doctor who worked immensely for tribal healthcare |
| Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat | Maharashtra | Founding member of Lijjat Papad Cooperative |
| Girish Yashwant Prabhune | Maharashtra | The social worker worked for the betterment of nomadic Pardhi tribes |
| Nanda Prusty | Odisha | 98 years old school teacher educating generations of children for free |
| KK Ramachandra Pulavar | Kerala | Shadow puppeteer who performed in more than 45 countries promoting Indian culture and mythology |
| Balan Putheri | Kerala | A visually disabled author who have written 250+ books on Indian cultural heritage |
| Birubala Rabha | Assam | An ordinary woman who risked her life against witch-hunting in the North-East region |
| Kanaka Raju | Telangana | A Gussadi dancer who preserved the endangered tribal art forms by training youths. |
| Maityaram Reang | Tripura | Hojagiri dancer who preserved and promoted traditional dance form of Reang tribe |
| Dhananjay Diwakar Sagdeo | Kerala | Haematologist who worked for 40 years in tribe healthcare |
| Ashok Kumar Sahu | Uttar Pradesh | Vipassana teacher who helped people in healing mental health issues |
| Sindhutai Sapkal | Maharashtra | Social activist and mother of orphans |
| Arjun Singh Shekhawat | Rajasthan | A writer who has worked to empower Garasia tribal community |
| Ram Yatna Shukla | Uttar Pradesh | A Sanskrit Vyakran expert spread knowledge of Vedas and Vedanta for more than 60 years. |
| Jitender Singh Shunty | Delhi | Contributed during Covid by running ambulances and cremating dead bodies |
| Kartar Singh Sonkhle | Himachal Pradesh | Miniature artist skilled in creating artefacts from Bamboo sticks |
| Kartar Singh | Punjab | Gurbani Singer, who have written multiple books during 60 years |
| Dilip Kumar Singh | Bihar | A physician and healthcare activist who has worked for 70 years |
| Chandra Shekhar Singh | Uttar Pradesh | An agriculturalist who developed high yield seeds |
| Marachi Subburaman | Tamilnadu | A social worker who installed 30 lacks eco-friendly, low-cost toilets. |
| P Subramanian | Tamilnadu | Founder of Shanthi Gears who donated his wealth for the betterment of deprived people |
| Kapil Tiwari | Madhya Pradesh | A folk artist who portrayed Ramayana themed artwork in tribal culture |
| KY Venkatesh | Karnataka | India’s legendary dwarf athlete who won a record number of medals in the World Dwarf Games |
Glimpses of Padma Shri Award Ceremony 2021
Himmatram Bhambhu, a local environment hero from Nagaur, Rajasthan, was one of the Padma Shri Award winners 2021, now called the ‘People’s Padma’. Himmatram has not just grown an entire forest in 25 bighas including 11, 000 trees, but he has also planted more than five lakh trees within five years.
At the August assembly in Rashtrapati Bhavan, the audience clapped a bit louder when Harekala Hajabba came forward dressed in a dhoti and a simple cotton shirt to receive the Padma Shri Award from President Ramnath Kovind as you do not get frequent chances to meet a humble fruit seller who spent his life and earning to build a school.
It was a remarkable moment when Manjamma Jogati, a transgender folk dancer from Karnataka, performed casting off the evil eye to President Ramnath Kovind before receiving one of the highest civilian honours of India. Manjamma is the first trans woman president of Karnataka Janapada Academy.
The list of India’s less known Padma Shri Award winners 2021 will be considered incomplete without mentioning Dr. Kushal Konwar Sarma, known as ‘Elephant Man of India’. In his career of more than a decade, he cured around 600 elephants and saved 150+ rouge bull elephants.
