On January 25, 2020 it was announced that Hajabba will be awarded with the Padma Shri award. However, the award function could not be held back then in wake of the COVID-19 situation.

Harekala Hajabba, an orange vendor from Mangalore, built a primary school with his earnings of Rs 150 per day. On Monday, he received the Padma Shri award from President Ram Nath Kovind.

Hajabba, who sells oranges at Mangaluru bus depot since 1977, does not know how to read or write and has never been to school. His village had no school but the 66-year-old wanted to change this.

He opened a primary school, his story is narrated in schools

Harekala Hajabba, an orange seller from Karnataka, was conferred the Padma Shri award on Monday, for spending his savings to build a school in his village.

Hajabba said that the idea to build the school came to his mind in 1978 when a foreigner asked him the cost of orange

Harekala Hajabba received a hero's welcome when he returned to his home town Mangaluru on Tuesday

What an inspiration!

His village - Newpadapu - had no school despriving hundrends of children of proper education. Hajabba himself had no access for education, but he decided not to let children go through the suffering that he did.

The 66-year-old orange vendor, himself having no schooling, received a Padma Shri award for bringing a revolution in rural education by constructing a school in a village in Mangaluru which now has 175 students studying there.