Leelaben Chhabildas Gurjar
Leelaben Chhabildas Gurjar from Gujarat has been awarded the iconic mother award from President Pranab Mukherjee. Leelaben was chosen for the award for successfully bringing-up her children despite great odds. Leelaben had to face great odds to educate her six children, including two daughters. She worked as ‘safai karamchari’ and in order to supplement the meagre salary from the job she used to work as a manual scavenger. She became mother at the age of 14. Later, five more children were born to her. In spite of adversity, she sent all her children to school and encouraged them to get education. Because of the prevailing practise of untouchability, her children were not allowed to sit along with others or to share the common facility of drinking water. Undeterred by such discrimination, Leelaben continued to give her unstinting support to her children and eventually succeeded in securing higher education for all of them and they achieved respectable positions in their careers and in society.