Padma Shri Awardees: 'Langar Baba', 'Chacha Sharif' Among Nation's Unsung Heroes

Among those recognised on the 71st Republic Day, for their exemplary selfless work is Jagdish Lal Ahuja, popularly known as 'Langar Baba'. Ahuja was conferred the Padma Shri for "selflessly organising langars for 500 plus poor patients daily for over two decades".

Langar Baba is also known to provide financial assistance, blankets and clothes to patients. Ahuja came to India as a refugee during Partition and became a billionaire by the dint of his hard work.

Langar Baba sold properties worth several crores to fund his objective. Stomach cancer has not swayed him from his path of selfless service.

Padma Shri awardee, Mohammed Sharif is popularly referred to as 'Chacha Sharif'. A bicycle mechanic, Sharif has been performing the last rites of thousands of unclaimed dead bodies for the last 25 years, according to the citation.

Chacha Sharif has performed the last rites of more than 25,000 unclaimed bodies in and around Faizabad over the years. The standout feature of his selfless service is that Sharif has never made any distinctions based on religion. He performs the last rites of an unclaimed body in accordance with the deceased individual's religious practices. He has cremated thousands of Hindus and buried as many Muslims, as per the customs laid down in their respective faiths.

Another Padma awardee, Javed Ahmad Tak, hails from Anantnag in Kashmir. He has been working with differently abled children for two decades, trying to integrate them into mainstream life. Tak himself is wheelchair-bound since 1997, on account of a spinal injury from a bullet which struck him in a militant attack.

Another Padma Shri recipient this Republic Day is Tulasi Gowda, an environmentalist, known as the 'Encyclopaedia of Forest' due to her extensive knowledge of a vast variety of plants and herbs. Gowda has no formal education in the field and grew up in stark poverty. Yet, she has painstakingly planted and nurtured thousands of trees over more than 60 years and continues to do so inspirationally, at 72.