Karnataka orange vendor receives Padma Shri Award | Fusion - WeRIndia

He is illiterate but is providing education to many children. Read on to know the inspiring journey of an orange vendor from orange selling to receiving the Padma Shri award.

Recently, Harekala Hajabba from Karnataka, an orange vendor, received Padma Shri Award from the President of India. This 66-year old has been honoured with the award for his relentless efforts to educate rural children.

Hajabba has never been to school. But, he knew the value of education. He has been selling oranges at the Hampankatta market in Mangaluru since 1977. He earns nearly ₹150 per day.

Hajabba only knows Kannada. He neither knows Hindi nor English. In the initial days, i.e., in 1978, a foreigner asked him the cost of orange. However, due to language barriers, he could not answer it. It made him think about the importance of education. As there was no school for the children to study, he thought that no children should face a similar situation like him. So, he wanted to construct a school in the village for the education of children.

Since then, he started saving his earnings. After two decades, in 2000, he started a school on one acre of land using all his savings. For his philanthropic work, he was given the title of ‘The Akshara Santa’.

The school that started with 28 students has now 175 students. Students of different classes up to Class 10 are studying in the school.

Hajabba received many awards for his philanthropic work. He aims to construct more schools and colleges in his village and invest the prize money for that. He accumulated prize money to buy the land, and several people also donated money for that. Besides, he requested PM Modi to construct a pre-university college for students of classes 11 and 12 in his village.

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