: Ladakhs Manjhi to 105-YO Farmer: 11 TBI Heroes Awarded The Padma Shri in 2021 #IndiaNEWS #Inspirational When the list of Padma awardees was announced earlier this week, some names familiar to readers

Ladakhs Manjhi to 105-YO Farmer: 11 TBI Heroes Awarded The Padma Shri in 2021 #IndiaNEWS #Inspirational
When the list of Padma awardees was announced earlier this week, some names familiar to readers of The Better India cropped up. There were more than just a few inspirational Indians, whom TBI has been fortunate enough to speak with and cover. From Ladakh to Tamil Nadu, here are 11 Padma Shri awardees from this year who were previously covered by TBI.
Tsultrim Chonjor: Septuagenarian Tsultrim Chonjor, fondly known as Meme Chonjor, is from the remote village of Stongde in the Zanskar Valley of Ladakh.
The former government employee, who was working with the State handicrafts department from 1965 to 2000, was unhappy at how remote and inaccessible the region was from the rest of the Indian mainland.
From May 2014 to June 2017, he single-handedly led efforts to construct a 38-km stretch of road from Ramjak, an inhabited area on the Jammu and Kashmir side of Shinkula pass, to Kargyak village, the first properly inhabited village in the Zanskar region. Spending Rs 57 lakh from his own pocket after dipping into his life savings and selling his ancestral property, he pressed a JCB machine into action, set forth with five donkeys and constructed the road.

Marachi Subburaman: The 71-year-old has been recognised for his efforts to improve sanitation in rural areas, particularly in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Running an NGO called ‘Society for Community Organisation and Peoples Education’ (SCOPE), which has been focusing on sanitation in rural areas since 1986, it has so far constructed over one lakh toilets across 26 states in the country and carried out bigger projects in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Assam.
In Tamil Nadu alone, SCOPE has installed about 20,000+ toilets. The Padma Shri awardee had observed that if the sewage is not disposed of properly, it can severely contaminate the groundwater.
This observation is what led SCOPE to introduce Ecosan toilets. These toilets have no flush or a piped connection to a sewage system and the urine and faecal matter collected is utilised as valuable urea and manure. This ensures that there is no way for any water body or groundwater to get polluted. The first-ever Ecosan toilet in Kalipalayam village, Tiruppur district, was built in 2000. By 2005, they had perfected their techniques.

Pappammal: At 105, Papammal, a resident of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, continues to work on her 2. 5 acre organic farm. She has lived through two World Wars, India’s Independence, multiple natural calamities, and COVID-19.
Following the death of her grandmother almost 50 years ago, the Padma Shri awardee inherited a small provision store in Thekkampatti. She managed the provision store and started a small eatery selling snacks and beverages.

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