The PeoplesPadma movement marks a paradigm shift in JanBhagidari for building a New India. In 2017, the decision to open up
recommendations for Padma Awards by regular citizens was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since then the Awards have really come a long way by honouring the true heroes of India. Awards, particularly, those accorded by the Government, must reflect our national character. Over the last few years, the Padma Awards have given more importance to the nominees’ work than their identities. The nomination process was opened to the public at large, thereby making it a people’s movement. The government has created an online nomination platform for common citizens to recommend the civilian “Padma” awards nomination annually. Recognizing our real heroes at the grassroots levels, the Awards acknowledges the tireless efforts of those rendering services to their communities and society. MyGov presents an unprecedented opportunity for citizens to get involved and be a part of this historic movement. The government has urged all citizens to identify talented persons whose excellence and achievements really deserve to be recognised from amongst women, SC, STs, divyang persons and who are doing selfless service to society and make their nominations or recommendations.

The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been honouring with Padma awards since 2017, many “unsung heroes”, for their tireless and relentless contributions to the society. The change in Padma Award has come recently from the past 3-4 years. Earlier, powerful personalities used to recommend for the awards and they used to get it. But now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his entire team, lookout for the people who are working for real. The process to send recommendations for awards has also become online. But above all, you can see how these people have been searched, which includes collecting reports from the District Collector.

From the area that person belongs to, so it can be confirmed that he/she is genuinely working, ” the Former Lok Sabha Speaker and an eminent Parliamentarian Sumitra Mahajan told Prasar Bharati News Services. The government received 46,000 nominations for the 2020 awards — in 2014, there were only 2,200 nominations. The government also launched the Padma Quiz in 2018, an online quiz that allows winners to attend the Padma Award ceremony in person at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The changes introduced have removed the ambiguity around nominations. It has also made the process of selection more transparent. The ability of people to participate in the award process is more accessible. The new criteria for selection have given hope to many who would never have considered themselves winning some of the country’s highest civilian awards. Now they can, and many have in the last couple of years applied and have been recoganised. No system of selection is without a flaw, but it is closest to a democratic process, that has been adopted to find the deserved candidates. The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. Padma Awards, which were instituted in the year 1954, is announced every year on the occasion of Republic Day except for brief interruption(s) during the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997.