Padma Awards  

The night of December 2nd, 1984, will remain etched in our country’s memory. On that horrific night, deadly methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, claiming over 20,000 lives and leaving lakhs severely disabled. Abdul Jabbar, who was 28 then, lost his mother, father, brother and himself suffered lung fibrosis and lost 50% of his vision. On November 14, 2019, he passed away after fighting for justice for the victims and survivors for close to 3 decades. With the government of India awarding this Bhopal gas tragedy activist the Padma Shri posthumously, let’s take a look at his lesser-known story in this episode of India Untold with Sunita Iyer.

Once a manual scavenger, Usha Chaumar from Alwar bagged the Padma Shri award this year, inspiring one and all with her journey full of adversity, where she emerged as a winner. Let’s find out more about her journey in this episode of Not For Women Only with Sunita Iyer.

So far, Padma Vibhushan has been bestowed upon only three male sportspersons namely chess legend Viswanathan Anand (2007), cricket great Sachin Tendulkar (2008) and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary (2008, posthumously). Now, Mary Kom has been recommended

The Padma awards are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, the second, third and fourth highest civilian awards of the country respectively, only after Bharat Ratna.
 

Actor Mohanlal was recently awarded the Padma Bhushan by President Ram Nath Kovind and the news has left netizens divided.   

The government claims that the reason for the increase is due to the free and fair process of scrutiny. Also, in the past three years, many from the general public have also received these awards