At the official ceremony of Padma Award 2021 held in Delhi on Monday 8 November, Harekala Hajabba who is an orange vendor from Karnataka received the Padma Shri Award (India's second-highest civilian award) from President Ram Nath Kovind. Hajabba is awarded Padma Shri for bringing major changes and revolution in the sector of rural education by constructing a school in Mangaluru in a village named Harekala-Newpadpu. The school built by Hajabba consists of 175 underprivileged students at present coming from various areas of the village.
Harekala Hajabba is 66 years old orange vendor from Karnataka who sells oranges at the bus stop of Mangaluru since the year 1977. He is illiterate as he has no schooling though built up a school from his own earnings by selling oranges in streets and bus stops. His thought of bringing a revolution in education in his village became a wish by getting inspired by one of the incidents he faced in his life.
In the year 1978, Mr. Hajabba once encountered a foreigner while selling oranges who asked him the price of orange but Hajabba failed to understand the foreigner as he don't know English. He was unable to communicate with that foreigner as he can't speak in English or any other language the only language he knows is Kannada, this made him feel depressed and disappointed being unable to help the foreigner, therefore, he decided for construction of a school in his village.
He then started his school with 28 students which now have 175 students offering education up to class 10. Former MLA late UT Fareed sanctioned the construction of the school in the year 2000 and for his philanthropic contributions, Hajabba received the Saint Letter titled Akshara Santa. He has constructed numerous schools in the village for which he has received various awards in recent years which led him to win the prestigious Padma Shri Award.
Hajabba said in an interview that has the target to construct more schools and colleges in his village that will help all the students to acquire school education. He said he will invest the prize money so that in the future he can purchase land with that money to construct schools and colleges. He further added that he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the construction of a pre-university college in my village for the students of Class 11 and 12.
Harekala Hajabba was born on 17 October 1952 and lived with his parents in Tumkur of Karnataka but later shifted to Mangalore Karnataka. Hajabba is married and also has children.
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