Awards for Sikh achievers in Mumbai with traditional look while scaling careers

MUMBAI: Saturday night saw a unique awards ceremony honouring Sikh achievers whose profiles were as varied and interesting as they come.

Each was a 'Sabat Soorat' Sikh who maintains the traditional look with turban or head cover, beard and kada that is prescribed for followers of the religion. The winners spanned a 17-year-old space technology entrepreneur from Jammu to a diver from a Haryana village who retrieves people, cattle and crocodiles from rivers and canals.

The annual Sikh Achievers' Awards ceremony at Shanmukhananda Hall on April 29 felicitated extraordinary individuals and organisations from the community who have excelled in their fields of activity. Businessmen who operate with a social conscience are also encouraged.

The awards are helmed by Sanjha Parivaar and Sat Sri Akaal Charitable Trust. Sardar Puran Singh Banga, general secretary of the SSA trust said, "We are organising these awards since 15 years, especially to encourage Sikhs who maintain the 'Sabat Soorat', wearing long hair, kada and essential symbols of the faith while they scale new heights in their career. We invite Sikh men and women from all parts of the world to apply in eight categories. We do research on the shortlisted nominees and prepare video profiles of winners which are screened at the awards' ceremony."

This year, the youngest winner was 17-year-old Onkar Singh Batra of Jammu who had coded his own website at the age of seven, and wrote a book partly challenging Albert Einstein's theory in 2018. The Class 12 student said, "I now run a start-up that offers open source satellite technology to anyone who is interested. The idea is to not patent or commercialise this technology, and instead grant ready access to space geeks for free."

Another set of winners, Karan Chhabra and Amar Preet, are the founders of a shoe company that creates sustainable footwear. Their firm Neeman Shoes has introduced sneakers made from recycled PET bottles and slippers crafted from recycled tyres. The duo plans to convert 10 million discarded plastic bottles into sneakers by 2025.

The inspirational Sandeep Kaur is on a mission to combat female foeticide. Her trust provides a safe haven for nearly 200 girls who have experienced hardship and struggle. While Paramjeet Singh's Dharma Bharati Mission has provided eight million meals to slum children among multiple social initiatives.

Loud applause greeted Pragat Singh 'Gotakhor' (diver) who at the age of 35 has reportedly saved 2,100 people from drowning in rivers and canals in the past 24 years. He has a well-documented history of crocodile rescues. He said, "I started diving while grazing cattle in my village in Kurukshetra. Now, I am called to Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. I often remove my turban to wrap the bodies of lifeless women." Singh has rescued 16 dreaded crocodiles from the Bhakra Nangal dam. Saturday was the first time Pragat Singh traveled by airplane, and was presented Rs1 lakh for his daughters' marriage by the organisers.

Hemkunt Foundation, a nonprofit, provided oxygen support, ambulance services and cooked meals for people during the Covid lockdown. The NGO was born out of a harrowing experience that founder Irinder Singh Ahluwalia and his family had as they were stranded for a week at Gurdwara Hemkunt Sahib during a natural calamity in 2013.


Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here. Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171.