Padma awardees: The commitment and social concern

Nine personalities from Karnataka have been selected for Padma awards for their contribution to various fields. DH interacted with four of the nine awardees and asked them about their future plans and what the award means to them: 

Anupama Hoskere

Anupama Hoskere, a master puppeteer from Bengaluru in Karnataka, was chosen for Padma Shri for her contributions to the field of art. Hoskere, the Founder-Director of the Dhaatu Puppet Theater in Bengaluru has wide experience in performance, puppet making, puppet theatre proscenium design, script writing for puppet plays, music and song composition for puppet plays and lighting and sound effects in puppet theatre.

Speaking with DH, Hoskere said that she was surprised, shocked and delighted when she was chosen for the prestigious award. Hoskere said that their Dhaatu Puppet Gallery at the Mandala Cultural Centre will go digital soon and they are developing the cultural centre to have weekend puppet shows by April and provide birthday party puppet shows and workshops.

“Indians by nature are storytellers — including the young people on Instagram and other social media platforms. For them, puppetry can become a frenzy and it is fun. It is good to have a balance with the virtual world with something physical: to be rooted with the soil means a healthy mind and body, and when this is intact, the potential of human beings can be reached.”

Sridhar Makam Krishnamurthy

Prof Sridhar Makam Krishnamurthy, who was chosen for the Padma Shri, has made significant strides in the field of education and literature. Popularly known as MKS, Prof Sridhar, the Founder-Chancellor of Chanakya University in Bengaluru, has taught and mentored students and has been a researcher for over four decades.

The professor said that personally speaking, it feels like any other day but it doesn’t mean he was undermining the award and he fully appreciates it and that the importance of education has been vindicated. “It is also a vindication of the National Education Policy (NEP) and that there is so much work to be done in our country in the field of education,” Prof Sridhar told DH. “The reminder is that we need to continue to work more vigorously and at the same time indebted to the society, the family, my students and the institutions where I worked.”

The veteran professor said that it was an award given to collectivity. 

Dr Chandrashekar Channapatna Rajannachar

Dr Chandrashekar Channapatna Rajannachar, or Dr C R Chandrashekar, founded Samadhana Counselling Centre in 2007. He is popular as a ‘people’s psychiatrist’. Having spent 37 years in service at Nimhans, he worked to raise awareness of the importance of mental health care and sought to eradicate any stigma and blind beliefs attached to mental health. 

Speaking to DH, Dr Chandrashekar, who has over 70 accolades, over a thousand articles and over 300 books in his name, could not contain his joy. With an approach to democratise psychological concepts and care, Dr Chandrashekar has been advocating training more lay people in counselling so they can become primary caregivers and administer psychological first aid. Over the past 10 years, his team and he has trained over 5,000 people in north Karnataka and over 2,500 people at his centre alone. “This is the only way to reach people and take mental health into communities so people can learn to live while fulfilling their needs and reach out for help if needed.”

Dr Prema Dhanraj

Seventy two-year-old Dr Prema Dhanraj, who was chosen for the Padma Shri, is a living example of how courage and  determination can take you to great heights and help you achieve your dream.

Having survived as a child from a fire accident after suffering 50% burn injuries, Prema went on to achieve her mother’s dream of becoming a doctor. Dr Prema started ‘Agni Raksha’, an organisation that provides rehabilitation to burn victims from poor families, “We have a lot of ongoing projects and one among them was to train 50 doctors every month from smaller clinics and teach them how to treat burn victims. This is something we started in 2022 because most hospitals during Covid refused to treat or admit victims of burn injuries. And timely treatment is key to saving their lives,” Dr Prema told DH.