The 2021 Padma Shri Awards

The nation’s fourth highest civilian award was recently conferred in a much-awaited ceremony. Aditi Paul presents a brief review.

The Padma Awards were conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind in a two-day ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan this week. The Padma Awards are three of the highest civilian awards the Government of India elects to bestow. The ceremony is traditionally held on Republic Day, with the list of awardees released earlier in the year. The rampant and violent COVID-19 pandemic, however, led to the 2020 and 2021 ceremonies being deferred until a suitable time. In a two-day ceremony, awardees for both years were honoured, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries. 

The 2021 List of Awardees

The 2021 list includes seven Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan, and 102 Padma Shri awardees. Of these, 29 are women, 16 are posthumous awardees, and there is 1 transgender awardee. The Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the country, is awarded for distinguished service. Although the awards are not usually conferred posthumously, some cases are considered exceptions. 

President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Matha B. Manjamma Jogati for Art :

Previously, the awards have faced criticism for being granted in a partial manner. 2018 saw the creation of an online platform where people can now vote to elect those individuals they feel are deserving of the nomination. Over the two-day ceremony, netizens trended the tag #PeoplesPadma while commenting on the coverage of the event. 

The Padma Shri

This year’s Padma Shri was awarded across a diverse range of categories such as art, literature and education, medicine, agriculture, public affairs, social work, sports, trade and industry etc. 

President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Smt Usha Yadav for Literature and Education :

Following is the list of Padma Shri awardees for 2021, across all categories. 

ART

1.	Matha B. Manjamma Jogati	Karnataka
2.	Ms Bhuri Bai	Madhya Pradesh
3.	Ms Bombay Jayashri Ramnath	Tamil Nadu
4.	Ms Dulari Devi	Bihar
5.	Ms Lajwanti	Punjab
6.	Ms Nidumolu Sumathi	Andhra Pradesh
7.	Ms. Purnamasi Jani	Odisha
8.	Ms Radhe Devi	Manipur
9.	Ms Sanjida Khatun	Bangladesh
10.	Shri Biren Kumar Basak	West Bengal
11.	Shri Damodaran Kaithapram	Kerala
12.	Shri Dulal Manki	Assam
13.	Shri Ghulam Rasool Khan	Jammu and Kashmir
14.	Shri Gopiram Bargayn Burabhakat	Assam
15.	Shri Gulfam Ahmed	Uttar Pradesh
16.	Shri K C Sivasankar (Posthumous)	Tamil Nadu
17.	Shri K K Ramachandra Pulavar	Kerala
18.	Shri K Kesavasamy	Puducherry
19.	Shri Kanaka Raju	Telangana
20.	Shri Kartar Paras Ram Singh	Himachal Pradesh
21.	Shri Kartar Singh	Punjab
22.	Shri Lakha Khan	Rajasthan
23.	Shri Maheshbhai & Shri Nareshbhai Kanodia (Duo) (Posthumous)	Gujarat
24.	Shri Narayan Debnath	West Bengal
25.	Shri Parshuram Atmaram Gangavane	Maharashtra
26.	Shri Peter Brook	United Kingdom
27.	Shri Radhe Shyam Barle	Chhattisgarh
28.	Shri Rama Swamy Annavarapu	Andhra Pradesh
29.	Shri Ramachandra Manjhi	Bihar
30.	Shri Rewben Mashangva	Manipur
31.	Shri Satyaram Reang	Tripura
32.	Shri Subbu Arumugam	Tamil Nadu
33.	Shri Vinayak Vishnu Khedekar	Goa
34.	Shri Wayan Dibia	Indonesia

LITERATURE AND EDUCATION

35.	Father Vallés (Posthumous)	Spain
36.	Ms Mridula Sinha (Posthumous)	Bihar
37.	Ms Usha Yadav	Uttar Pradesh
38.	Shri Arjun Singh Shekhawat	Rajasthan
39.	Shri Balan Putheri	Kerala
40.	Shri Chaman Lal Sapru (Posthumous)	Jammu and Kashmir
41.	Shri Chandrakant Mehta	Gujarat
42.	Shri Dadudan Gadhavi	Gujarat
43.	Shri Dharma Narayan Barma	West Bengal
44.	Shri Imran Shah	Assam
45.	Shri Jagadish Chandra Halder	West Bengal
46.	Shri Jai Bhagwan Goyal	Haryana
47.	Shri Kapil Tiwari	Madhya Pradesh
48.	Shri Mangal Singh Hazowary	Assam
49.	Shri Namdeo C Kamble	Maharashtra
50.	Shri Nanda Prusty	Odisha
51.	Shri Nicholas Kazanas	Greece
52.	Shri Prakasarao Asavadi	Andhra Pradesh
53.	Shri Rajat Kumar Kar	Odisha
54.	Shri Ram Yatna Shukla	Uttar Pradesh
55.	Shri Rangasami Lakshminarayana Kashyap	Karnataka
56.	Shri Srikant Datar	United States of America
57.	Shri Sujit Chattopadhyay	West Bengal

LITERATURE AND EDUCATION-JOURNALISM

58.	Shri Roman Sarmah	Assam
59.	Shri Solomon Pappaiah	Tamil Nadu

MEDICINE

60.	Dr Bhupendra Kumar Singh Sanjay	Uttarakhand
61.	Dr. Chandrakant Sambhaji Pandav	Delhi
62.	Dr. Dhananjay Diwakar Sagdeo	Kerala
63.	Dr Dilip Kumar Singh	Bihar
64.	Dr. J N Pande (Posthumous)	Delhi
65.	Dr Krishna Mohan Pathi	Odisha
66.	Dr Rattan Lal Mittal	Punjab
67.	Dr Thiruvengadam Veeraraghavan (Posthumous)	Tamil Nadu
68.	Shri Ashok Kumar Sahu	Uttar Pradesh

AGRICULTURE

69.	Ms Pappammal	Tamil Nadu
70.	Shri Chandra Shekhar Singh	Uttar Pradesh
71.	Shri Nanadro B Marak	Meghalaya
72.	Shri Prem Chand Sharma	Uttarakhand

GRASSROOTS INNOVATION

73.

Shri Ali Manikfan

Lakshadweep

PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

74.	Ms Bijoya Chakravarty	Assam
75.	Col Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir	Bangladesh

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING 

76.

Shri Rattan Lal

United States of America

SOCIAL WORK

77.	Guru Maa Kamali Soren	West Bengal
78.	Ms Birubala Rabha	Assam
79.	Ms Chutni Devi	Jharkhand
80.	Ms Lakhimi Baruah	Assam
81.	Ms Niru Kumar	Delhi
82.	Ms Prakash Kaur	Punjab
83.	Ms Sangkhumi Bualchhuak	Mizoram
84.	Ms Shanti Devi	Odisha
85.	Ms Sindhutai Sapkal	Maharashtra
86.	Shri Girish Prabhune	Maharashtra
87.	Shri Jagdish Chaudhary (Posthumous)	Uttar Pradesh
88.	Shri Jitender Singh Shunty	Delhi
89.	Shri Marachi Subburaman	Tamil Nadu
90.	Shri Shyam Sundar Paliwal	Rajasthan
91.	Shri Tsultrim Chonjor	Ladakh

SPORTS

92.	Ms Anshu Jamsenpa	Arunachal Pradesh
93.	Ms Mouma Das	West Bengal
94.	Ms P. Anitha	Tamil Nadu
95.	Ms Sudha Hari Narayan Singh	Uttar Pradesh
96.	Shri K Y Venkatesh	Karnataka
97.	Shri Madhavan Nambiar	Kerala
98.	Shri Virender Singh	Haryana

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

99.	Ms Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat	Maharashtra
100.	Ms Rajni Bector	Punjab
101.	Shri P Subramanian (Posthumous)	Tamil Nadu
102.	Shri Sridhar Vembu	Tamil Nadu