President Droupadi Murmu presented 4 Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 57 Padma Shri Awards for the year 2025 at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-I held in Ganatantra Mandap of the Rashtrapati Bhawan today.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah, many Ministers of the Union and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
The President of India conferred Padma Shri to freedom fighter Libia Lobo Prataprao Sardesai, from Goa, in the field of Social Work during the Civil Investiture Ceremony in New Delhi.
Libia Lobo Prataprao Sardesai is a distinguished freedom fighter, Goa’s first woman advocate, social worker, and activist on issues relating to women and consumers. She co-ran the radio station ‘Voice of Freedom’ against the Portuguese regime, and hers was the voice that declared to the people of Goa that they were free on December 19, 1961.
Born on May 25, 1924, in Socorro, Porvorim, Sardesai completed her matriculation at Antonio de Souza High School in Byculla, Bombay, and thereafter completed her B.A. in English (Hons) from Siddharth College, Bombay. During her student days, she was Secretary of the Goan Youth League working for the freedom of Goa.
During World War II, Sardesai worked as an Italian translator/censor in the POW British Establishment for Italian prisoners in Bombay. In 1955, she was awarded her LL.B degree from Government Law College, a course she completed while working for All India Radio, Bombay. After completing her law studies, she resigned from All India Radio to join the underground movement for Goa’s Liberation.
From 1955 to 1961, she was instrumental in running ‘The Voice of Freedom’, an underground radio station broadcasting from the forests to listeners in Goa. She ran the station along with Vaman Sardesai (Padma Shri awardee) and for a short time, Nicolau Menezes. The last broadcast of the radio station was the announcement of Goa’s Liberation on December 19, 1961, from an Indian Air Force plane in the skies. The announcement was synchronised with the lowering of the Portuguese flag and the hoisting of the Indian tricolor for the first time on Goan soil.
After Liberation, Sardesai did liaison work with the Union Ministry of External Affairs connected with the repatriation of Portuguese troops in Goa.In March 1962, she was appointed Goa’s first Director of Tourism. She held the post till 1968, and during her tenure, completed various projects including a colour film on Goa with the United Nations Development Programme, and helped put Goa on the tourist map of India and the world. In 1968, she left government service to start legal practice, becoming the first woman lawyer to practice in the courts of Goa.
Sardesai promoted and founded the first and only Women’s Cooperative Bank in Goa, in Panaji in 1973. She was its Chairperson for more than ten years after its founding. The bank is still running, totally by women with Women Directors. Later, in 1986, she founded and was President of the AIWC Jubilee College of Home Sciences, Goa, affiliated to Goa University.In 1973-74, she was lecturer in Constitutional Law at Salgaocar College of Law, Panaji. From 1974 to 1987, she was Vice-President, Goa Daman and Diu Advocates’Association.In 1983, she was a member of the Indian delegation to the World Peace Conference in Moscow. In 1985, she was a member of the Indian delegation to the World Conference on the United Nations Decade for Women in Nairobi, and participated on behalf of the All India Women’s Conference.
Sardesai was felicitated by the Indian Army and Indian Navy for her collaboration in the struggle for Goa’s Liberation on her 100th birthday. She was thereafter felicitated by the Chief Minister of Goa, Dr Pramod Sawant with a Certificate of Honour for her role in Goa’s freedom struggle.
