Baba Iqbal Singh Ji was awarded Padma Shri award in 2022 for his major contribution in the field of social work.
He was born on 1st May, 1926, in the village of Pathankot, Punjab.
He graduated in agriculture and retired as the director of agriculture in Himachal Pradesh. Following retirement from service, he took up social work to empower rural people, particularly women.
Earlier in 2018, he was also awarded 'Shiromani Panth Ratan’.
Social Work
He was in charge of Kalgidhar Trust since 1965, before he had retired in 1987, he built the organisation that now runs 129 CBSE-affiliated English medium schools which have more than 70,000 children, most of them are from five rural North Indian states.
With only five students in a one-room school called ‘Akal Academy' at Baru Sahib, Sirmaur, Baba Iqbal Singh used his pension to construct the building and managed the school for the first year.
However, soon it was realised that establishing one school could not solve problems faced by children in nearby districts.
The trust thus opened Akal Academy in Muktsar in 1993. By 1999, it had opened 19 academies across Punjab and the count now goes up to 129 schools spread across Punjab, UP, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. Many students have nationally topped the IIT, IIM and NEET exams.
As a social worker, he didn’t restrict himself just to the education sector, he was involved in every facet of community life ie. schools, hospital, colleges, women care centre and de-addiction centres.
With his team, he set up Akal Charitable Hospital at Baru Sahib, Sirmaur, which provides medical care to rural poor and other deprived sections of society.
Every year, medical camps are organised to provide free medical care including free surgeries to poor people.
Under a women empowerment programme, underprivileged young women are rehabilitated by way of education and jobs.
