Shankarbaba Papalkar
An Amravati social worker who has raised more than a hundred abandoned children with disabilities as their father, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2024.
Shankarbaba Pundlikrao Papalkar has devoted his life to abandoned children with disabilities. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of social work, from Maharashtra [1].
The Vazzar ashram
He was born on 14 February 1942 [2]. In 1990 he was given 25 acres of barren land at Vazzar, about 50 km from Amravati, and started an orphanage there for children with disabilities who had nowhere else to go [2]. It began with four girls brought to him from different parts of the country [2].
A father to 123
Today 98 girls and 25 boys live at the ashram, and Papalkar is named as the father on all their Aadhaar identity cards [2]. He has arranged marriages for 21 of his daughters and three sons, and 12 of the children he raised now have government jobs [2].
The once-bare land now has about 15,000 trees, which the children look after [2]. His approach, in which the children care for one another, is known as the “Vazzar model” [2].
Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University has awarded him an honorary DLitt [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2024: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 15 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2024: citation for Shankarbaba Papalkar — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 15 October 2026.
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