Met Padman? Here Are Some Other Heroes Who Brought A Real Change.
Thanks to Mr. Akshay Kumar, we all know about the Padman now. What a great man Mr. Arunachalam Muruganantham is, and what all he had done in the field of women menstrual health and wellness. Just like Padman, there are other real-life modern heroes in India who went a little extra to help the mankind.
It’s time to give these unsung heroes the love and respect they truly deserve.
Want to know more about them? I curated a list of 8 such heroes who are doing everything in their power to make India truly a better place:
Sudhanshu Biswas
Once a fighter, always a fighter. Meet Mr. Sudhanshu Biswas, an Indian freedom fighter who sacrificed his whole youth for the pride of his country. Now in his late 90’s, the man did not become inactive, instead, he went ahead and picked up a new calling – to provide free education to underprivileged kids.
Today, Biswas has successfully founded 18 primary schools in the Sunderban Region of West Bengal under his voluntary organization – RamKrishna Sevaashram. Not just for the kids, Biswas also opened an old-age home and a dispensary in his village – everything to make his people’s lives better.
Gangadhara Tilak Katnam
For any normal person, retirement is the time when he can finally sit down, relax and probably plans to spend the rest of his life peacefully and in leisure. But that’s not the case with Mr. Gangadhara Tilak Katnam, who drives around on Hyderabad roads every morning to repair the potholes. People call him ‘The Road Doctor’ and he certainly lived up to the name as he has filled 1,124 potholes so far.
Tilak is now running a non-profit initiative called Shrmadaan - where young adults and students meet to repair such potholes.
Shafiq Ur Rehman Khan
Understanding a problem and actually raising your voice against it is two completely different things. It takes courage to voice against something like bride trafficking, women enslaving and exploitation. Shafiq Ur Rehman Khan is fighting against human trafficking and gender inequality since he was a teenager. Other than this, he is actively contributing to the movement of providing free education to the Dalit kids and other excluded communities in Bihar.
Recently, Times Now honored Shafiq Khan with ‘Amazing Indian Award’ for his wonderful work of rescuing girls who fall victim to ‘bride trafficking’.
Jyotsna Sitling
IFS by profession, Jyotsna Sitling is the first female officer who has spent her entire life working towards protecting the environment. Jyotsna is the perfect example that showcases that we could do anything if we work together with one goal in mind.
During her tenure, Jyotsna found out that Nanda Devi National Park is dying because of soil and water pollution. She made a vow to herself that she wouldn’t stop until she clears out all the garbage and restores the ecological sensitivity of the national park. But she was not alone in her quest, she received an overwhelming support from the local communities who helped her for 14 months and turned her dream into a reality.
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Shubhendu Sharma
Would you leave your high-paying job for growing a forest? Sounds weird? Not to the young engineer Shubhendu Sharma who quit his job to plant trees for the rest of his life. Till now the man has created 33 forests across India and is currently working on much more with his team of 6 that works from Bangalore.
Through his continuous and innovative work, Shubhendu showed the world that if we plan correctly, then we too can have a greener and cleaner future.
Binalakshmi Nepram
Your life can change in a fraction of a second, and nobody knows it better than Binalakshmi Nepram. She is a widow who lost her husband a little while ago during an ongoing war in Manipur. This incident changed her life forever, and that’s when she decided to reform the lives of many widows who had seen the same fate as her. Today, Nepram is running two organizations – Control Arms Foundation of India, New Delhi and Manipur Women Gun-Survivors Network, Manipur. Nepram is very vocal about her ideas on disarmament and supports many women by providing soft loans and livelihood options and training.
Rajani Paranjpe
Meet the founder of Door Step School – Rajani Tai. Mrs. Rajani Paranjpe is a social worker who believes that every child has a right to education. To fulfill her dream, Rajani Paranjpe initiated an amazing concept of the Door Step School, under which she has managed to take classes at anywhere where children are, like pavements, constructions sites, and railway stations, etc.
Manvendra Singh Gohil
He is the first gay prince of India who came out and accepts his homosexuality in front of the whole wide world. If that wasn’t enough challenging, Prince Manvendra started Lakshya Trust and is now working towards creating awareness and changing people’s views towards homosexuality.
Apart from this, his foundation also works for HIV/AIDS prevention among men who have sex with men.
Seeing their story, I believe that in order to do something spectacular, you don’t need power, support or money - All you need is an aim and willpower to achieve that aim in any condition. That’s what makes you a hero among others.
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