Inderjit Kaur of Pingalwara was one of four Sikhs to receive India’s highest honors for civil service.

AMRITSAR – Pingalwara has become a household name among Sikhs because of the extraordinary humanitarian work of its founder, Bhagat Puran Singh, who began collecting the deserted and downtrodden of society more than 80 years ago.

Although Puran Singh is gone, Pingalwara remains a humanitarian institution committed to help the helpless. His life’s work was taken over by Inderjit Kaur in 1992 as president of the All India Pingalwara Charitable Trust.

On India’s Republic Day, Kaur was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third highest civilian award, in recognition of her social service.

The Padma Bhushan is one of four awards for distinguished national service established by President Rajendra Prasad on the Jan. 2, 1954. It ranks third in hierarchy. The first is the Bharat Ratna, second is the Padma Vibhushan and fourth is the Padma Sri.

Two other Sikhs were among the 35 Padma Bhushan recipients during India’s independence day: Jagjit Singh Chopra, a neurologist and founder of the Government Medical College in Chandigarh and Jasdev Singh, a sports commentator in broadcast media. Another notable recipient was Indian-born astronaut Sunita Williams.

Among the 71 Padma Shri recipients was Vikramjit Singh Sahney who was recognized for his social work.

Sikhs were not among the 13 Padma Vibhushan recipients this year. Honorees included Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and Ratan Naval Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, India's largest industrial conglomerate. Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, a New Zealand mountaineer, was given the award posthumously. He and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became were the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Hillary died on Jan. 11, 2008 at the age of 88.


Note: By Munish Byala
Sikh News Network staff photojournalist
mbyala@sikhnn.com
Anju Kaur, Sikh News Network staff journalist, also contributed to this report.
anjukaur@sikhnn.com