Harekala Hajabba

Harekala Hajabba sold oranges on the streets of Mangaluru. He had never learned to read or write. Out of that hard daily work came something lasting: a school in his home village of Newpadpu, which has taught hundreds of children.

A question he could not answer

Hajabba has often told the story of how the idea began. A foreign visitor once asked him, in English, how much his oranges cost. He did not understand the question and could not reply. The moment stayed with him. He decided that the children of his village should not grow up facing the same problem ^[2].

Building a school, one rupee at a time

In 1999 he started a primary school in Newpadpu, a village on the edge of Mangaluru ^[2]. He paid for it from his own savings, which came from earnings of about 150 rupees a day ^[2]. At first there was little help. He began with 28 children and kept visiting government offices, including the Zilla Panchayat, to ask for support ^[2].

Over time the school grew. It is now a composite high school that serves children from Newpadpu and nearby villages ^[2][3]. Whenever Hajabba won a cash prize for his work, he put the money back into the school ^[2].

People in the region gave him a name of respect: “Akshara Santha”, which means “the saint of letters” ^[2]. His life story has been included in the syllabus of three universities in Karnataka (Davangere, Kuvempu and Mangalore) and in a Tulu-language textbook ^[2]. He also received the Karnataka Rajyotsava award in 2013 ^[2].

A call in the ration queue

The Ministry of Home Affairs announced the Padma Shri for Hajabba on 25 January 2020, in the field of Social Work, from Karnataka ^[1]. When the phone call came, he was standing in a queue to buy rations. He was not comfortable in Hindi, so he passed the phone to an auto-rickshaw driver, who explained the news to him ^[2].

He received the award from President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan in November 2021. He walked up barefoot, dressed in his usual white dhoti and shirt ^[3]. Back in Newpadpu, teachers had set up a screen so the pupils could watch. When his name was called, the children cheered ^[3].

Still dreaming

Even after the award, Hajabba spoke of what was still missing. He asked the state and central governments to help start a pre-university college in Harekala, so that children could study further without leaving the area ^[3].