When the list of Padma awardees was announced earlier this week, some names familiar to readers of The Better India cropped up. There were more than just a few inspirational Indians, whom TBI has been fortunate enough to speak with and cover. From Ladakh to Tamil Nadu, here are 11 Padma Shri awardees from this year who were previously covered by TBI.
Tsultrim Chonjor: Septuagenarian Tsultrim Chonjor, fondly known as ‘Meme Chonjor’, is from the remote village of Stongde in the Zanskar Valley of Ladakh.
The former government employee, who was working with the State handicrafts department from 1965 to 2000, was unhappy at how remote and inaccessible the region was from the rest of the Indian mainland.
From May 2014 to June 2017, he single-handedly led efforts to construct a 38-km stretch of road from Ramjak, an inhabited area on the Jammu and Kashmir side of Shinkula pass, to Kargyak village, the first properly inhabited village in the Zanskar region. Spending Rs 57 lakh from his…