Mumbai: 89 people were conferred with Padma awards by the President of India on the occasion of Republic Day on 26th January, 2017. 19 of the awardees were women. The list also included 5 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 6 Posthumous awardees.
Padma Awards, one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri and are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. Anuradha Paudwal, Bharathi Vishnuvardhan, Meenakshi Amma were some of the distinguished women among others who were conferred with Padma Shri by the President.
Anuradha Paudwal Art-Music, Maharashtra – Anuradha Paudwal has been one of the most popular playback singers in Bollywood with over 6000 Hindi songs to her credit. The National Film Awardee has also lent her soulful voice to devotional songs in various languages that include Hindi, Kannada, Marwari, Pahari, Marathi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Maithili. The singer entered the world of Bollywood in 1973 when she sang a few songs a shloka in the movie, Abhimaan starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.
Bharathi Vishnuvardhan Art-Cinema, Karnataka – Bharathi Vishnuvardhan has worked as an actress in the Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu film industries. One of the leading ladies in Kannada cinema in the
late 1960s to 1980s, she first came into limelight with the 1996 film Nadodi starring M. G. Ramachandran and Saroja Devi. Offers to play lead actress in Tamil films followed soong. Gemini Ganeshan, Ravichandran, Jaishankar, Shivaji Ganeshan are some of the leads she was paired opposite. Her tryst with Hindi films came in 1967 when she did a film Mehrbaan followed by Saadu Aur Shaitaan in 1968.
Meenakshi Amma, Kerala – The 76 year old grandmother and resident of Kerala Meenakshi Amma is known for her martial arts and fencing. She is the oldest woman swordsman in India and she is expert in kalaripayattus Indian martial arts. She started taking martial arts classes as early as age of 7 years. She has been practicing Kalaripayattu for no less than 68 years. Meenakshi Amma is running Meenakshi Gurukul where she is passing on her skills to a younger generation, including increasing numbers of girls who are learning how to defend themselves.
