Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Jan 25: Harekala Hajabba, the orange seller who is known as the 'saint of letters' will be honoured with Padma Shri award. The Padma awards for the year 2020 were announced on Saturday.
The illiterate fruit vendor devoted nearly 20 years of his life and life's earnings towards educating children in his village. He used to earn a meager income by selling oranges.
The Harekala school was initially set up in a community mosque. It was later made the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Higher Primary School with the help of local people and the government.
Hajjaba was awarded the ‘Person of the year’ by Kannada Prabha newspaper in 2004 and ‘Real Heroes’ award by CNN-IBN in 2009. His life story has also found its way into the syllabus of many universities in Karnataka. He has now been awarded Padma Shri under the ‘Social Work’ category for providing affordable education.
He now has plans to upgrade the school to a pre-university college for the children.
Tulasi Gowda, popularly known as the 'Encyclopedia of Forest', who has worked hard towards afforestation efforts in her surroundings, is also among the Padmashri awardees this year.