a revolution in rural education by establishing a school in Mangaluru’s Harekala-Newpadpu community. There are around 175 poor pupils from the community studying in the school.
ndtv.com
Mr Hajabba is uneducated and has never attended school. His primary job was selling oranges at the Mangaluru bus terminal since 1977. The urge to revolutionize schooling in his own village started in 1978, following an incident with a foreigner who inquired about the price of oranges.
While addressing the media, the Padma Awardee said that this incident pushed him to build a school. He said, “As I could not communicate with the foreigner, I felt bad and decided to build a school in the village”. He added, “I only know Kannada, not English or Hindi. So I was depressed as I could not help the foreigner. I wondered about constructing a school in my village”.
Mr Hajabba’s idea of establishing a school took two decades to materialize. The Akshara Santa or Letter Saint, a moniker he obtained through his charitable activity, met late MLA UT Fareed, who approved the building in 2000. The school began only with 28 kids and has grown to 175 students from Class 1 to 10.
Mr. Hajabba now wishes to use the prize money he has collected over the years from numerous prizes into the development of new schools in his village. When questioned about his next objective, the 66-year-old stated, “My target is to build more schools and colleges in my village. Many people have donated money and I have accumulated prize money for purchasing the land for the construction of schools and colleges.” He added, “I have requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to construct a pre-university college (for Class 11 and 12 students) in my village”.
edexlive.com
Mr Hajabba also expressed gratitude to President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, district in-charge minister Kota Srinivasa Poojary, and MLA UT Khadar for recognizing his charitable efforts. In January 2020, the Central government revealed the names of Padma Awardees. However, as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, the award was given out only on Monday.
