Padma Shri awardee writer Padma Sachdev passes away at Mumbai hospital

The first modern woman poet to write in Dogri and Padma Shri awardee Padma Sachdev passed away on Wednesday in Mumbai, said an official of the Jammy and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.

Sachdev was hospitalised on Tuesday after developing some health complications, PTI reported.

Born in 1940, in Jammu’s Purmandal area, she went on to author many books in Dogri and Hindi.

Sachdev won the Sahitya Akademi Award for her poetry collection, ‘Meri Kavita Mere Geet’ in 1971. She was also awarded the Padma Shri in 2001, and the Kabir Samman for poetry for 2007-07.

Besides being a poet, Sachdev was also a lyricist for the 1973 Hindi film ‘Prem Parbat’, where she penned the lyrics for the song ‘Mera Chhota Sa Ghar Baar’. She wrote the lyrics for the famous song ‘Sona re, tujhe kaise milun’ in 1978.

After her marriage to singer Surinder Singh, she shifted base to New Delhi and Mumbai. Before that, she worked in Jammu and Mumbai for the All India Radio.

Paying tribute to Sachdev, Additional secretary of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages Arvinder Singh Aman, chaired a condolence meeting for the “doyen of Dogri literature”. He said, “Sachdev’s contribution to Dogri language is exemplary. She was a living example of Dogri culture.”

Aman said that Sachdev made Dogri popular throughout the world, and that her death is an “irreparable loss for Jammu”. He added that Sachdev will be remembered for her contribution towards getting Dogri to be a part of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

Ravinder Sharma, Chief spokesperson of the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee also paid tribute to Sachdev. Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Hari Singh and a senior Congress leader, also expressed grief over Sachdev’s demise.

Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma also expressed grief over Sachdev's death.