Sunderlal Bahuguna Ji was an Indian environmentalist and Chipko movement leader. The idea of the Chipko movement was suggested by his wife and him. He fought for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in the 1970s, and later spearheaded the anti-Tehri Dam movement from the 1980s to early 2004. He was one of the early environmentalists of India, and later he and others associated with the Chipko movement and started taking up wider environmental issues, such as being opposed to large dams.
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order...without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex." The award criteria include "service in any field including service rendered by Government servants" including doctors and scientists, but exclude those working with the public sector undertakings. As of 2020, the award has been bestowed on 1270 individuals, including twenty-four posthumous and ninety-seven non-citizen recipients.
Sonal Mansingh is an Indian classical dancer and Guru in Bharatanatyam and Odissi dancing style. She has been nominated by the President of India to become a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. She is the youngest recipient of Padma Bhushan in 1992 and Padma Vibhushan in 2003.
Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs, after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.
Padma Sachdev was an Indian poet and novelist. She was the first modern woman poet of the Dogri language. She also wrote in Hindi. She published several poetry collections, including Meri Kavita Mere Geet, which won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1971. She also received the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award in 2001, and the Kabir Samman for poetry for the year 2007-08 given by Government of Madhya Pradesh, Saraswati Samman for the year 2015, Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2019.
Dipali Barthakur was an Indian singer from Assam. Her songs were sung mainly in the Assamese language. She received the fourth-highest civilian award of India, the Padma Shri, in the year 1998.
Maniben Kara (1905-1979) was an Indian social worker and trade unionist. She was a founder member of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha and served as its president. She was honoured by the Government of India in 1970 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Savita Behen (1919-2009) was an Indian politician, social worker, educationist and a former member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the bicameral Indian Parliament. She was known to be an advocate of women empowerment and gender equality and was listed among the 3300 distinguished living women of the world by the Council for Parity Democracy in 1990. She was honoured by the Government of India in 1971 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Bindhyavasini Devi was an Indian folk musician. She was popularly recognised as Bihar Kokila. She was the founder of Vindhya Kala Mandir, a Patna based music academy promoting folk music, Vindhya Kala Mandir. The academy is associated with Bhatkhande University, Lucknow for 55 years now which is now run by her daughter-in-law Shobha Sinha, son Sudhir Kumar Sinha. She was born in Muzzafarpur in the Indian state of Bihar and specialised in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Magahi folk music. She also sang a popular song, Chhote Dulha Ke, in a movie, Vivah Geet and many of her songs have been released in CD format.
Claire Marie Jeanne Vellut (1926–2013) was a Belgian-born naturalised Indian leprologist, humanist and the founder of the Damien Foundation India Trust, a non profit non governmental organization engaged in providing treatment and rehabilitation services to people with leprosy and tuberculosis in India. She spent 55 years in India treating leprosy and tuberculosis patients, associating with the state and central governments or independently under the aegis of the trust she founded in 1955. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1981.
Chitra Jayant Naik (1918–2010) was an Indian educationist, writer, social worker, the chairperson of the Indian Institute of Education and the expert member of the Planning Commission of India. She was the chairperson of the Non-formal Education Committee set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and was a member of the National Literacy Mission. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1986.
Leonarda Angela Casiraghi, popularly known as Doddamma, was an Italian-born naturalised Indian Catholic missionary and social worker, known for her medical service in Dharwad, in the south Indian state of Karnataka. She founded a small medical dispensary in Dharwad in 1958, which later grew to become a full-fledged hospital by name, Our Lady of Lourdes Charitable Hospital. She came to India in 1955 and worked in Mangalore and Hyderabad for three years before founding the medical facility in Dharwad. A member of the Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa congregation, she was the administrator of the hospital and its sister concern, Our Lady of Lourdes School of Nursing, since their inception. She was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri by the Government of India, in 1998, for her services to the society
Hema Bharali was an Indian freedom activist, social worker, Sarvodaya leader and Gandhian, known for her contributions for the empowerment of women and efforts towards the upliftment of the socially and financially challenged sections of the society. She was reported to have been active during the relief operations in the wake of the earthquake in North Lakhimpur of Assam state in 1950 and in the development activities after the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2005, for her contributions to Indian society. A year later, she received the National Communal Harmony Award from the National Foundation for Communal Harmony, an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Bilkees Idrees Latīf was an Indian social worker and writer from Telangana, known for her work in the slums of India. She was a founding member of INTACH.
Dinesh Nandini Dalmia, also written as Dineshnandini Dalmia, was an Indian poet, short story writer and novelist of Hindi literature. She was the fifth wife of Ramkrishna Dalmia, founder of the Dalmia Group, and three of his four previous wives were still alive and married to him when she became his fifth wife. Nevertheless, she positioned herself in opposition to gender discrimination and purdah system, and published poems, prose poems, short stories and novels on the theme of women's emancipation. Shabnam , Niraash Aasha, Mujhe Maaf Kama and Yeh Bhi Jhooth Hai are some of her notable works. The Government of India awarded her the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 2006, for her contributions to literature. In 2009, India Posts released a commemorative stamp on her.
