Children to be honoured with National Bravery Award

Twenty-two children including four girls will get National Bravery Award-2007 for showing immense courage to save someone or their own life; Government of India announced in a press release statement here on Friday January 18, 2008. Four Children out of those will be awarded posthumously, who lost their life but won the honour.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will give these awards to the chosen children or their relatives (who are no more or can not attend the ceremony) at premise of Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW), New Delhi on January 24. The awardees will participate in the Republic Day parade riding on caparisoned elephant on January 26 as per following the tradition.

Bharat Award, the top bravery award will go to two children Babita, 17 and Amarjeet, 15 (both from Haryana) who saved several of their schoolmates from drowning when their bus fell into the Western Yamuna Canal.

Six years old Yuktarth Srivastava from Chhattisgarh will receive the ‘Sanjay Chopra Award’ as he saved his one-year old sister from stray dogs, while the ‘Geeta Chopra Award’ will go late Lalrempuii of Mizoram who died on at the age of 14 for saving herself from an attempted rape but loss her life.

Citing about the accident Yuktarth Srivastava, the youngest awardees said, “When I picked up my younger sister to save her from stray dogs, I was not afraid. I only wanted to save her life.” Though the wander dog bitted him and his sister bitterly but he could manage to save the life of both. Yuktarth want to be a doctor in the future to save more life as he expressed his view before the media.

On the other hand, the no-more victim of rape and murder Lalrempuii who fought till the end of her life from her neighbour who attacked on her for attempting rape when she was alone in her house.

“She must have cried for help, but since their house was so isolated, no one could hear her. She fought bravely but could not escape herself from his paw. He killed her and then raped as well,” said Hming Thangmawaii, the aunt of Lalrempuii who was here on her niece's behalf.

“The culprit was later arrested and he confessed his crime”, added Hming with grief but he feels proud of her niece.

Fighting against the social evil ‘Child Marriage’, Congress Kanwar, a 13-year old girl from Jhalawar district of Rajasthan is also in the selective candidate who protested her parents, relatives and villagers when they tried to get married her in this early age. She threatened her relatives to call police if they would try to get her marry forcefully. Later her schoolteachers helped her and could able to convince her parents and relatives.

“I want to become a police officer when I grow up. There are several girls who are not willing to raise their voice against the ills in society. If I give them support, I know there will be more youngsters who will say ‘no’ to wrong customs,” said Kanwar.

“The awards are aimed at giving due recognition to children who distinguish themselves by performing outstanding deeds of bravery and meritorious service and inspire other children to emulate their example. The awardees will receive a medal, a certificate and cash”, said Gita Siddhartha, the president of ICCW while she was introducing the winners to media on Friday.

Among others, Raipalli Vamsi (Andhra Pradesh), Boney Singh (Manipur) and Amol Aghi (posthumous) of Haryana will get the ‘Bapu Gaidhani Award’ while the rest of the candidates are: Raveendra Halder, Ravi Kumar Jhariya, Awadhesh Kumar Jhariya, Manas Nishad (all from Chhattisgarh), Vishnu C.S. and Bijin Babu (both from Kerala), K. Rajkumar, Pinjari Chinigi Sab (both from Andhra Pradesh), Meher Legha (Uttar Pradesh), Ankit Rai, Abhishake (posthumous) and Suraj (posthumous) (all from Haryana), Subhash Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) and Sunil Kumar P.N. (Karnataka).

Indian Council for Child Welfare first initiated the tradition of award in 1957 for saluting those kids who set an example for the society by their enormous courage, bravery and determination to fight until death. This award is celebrating 50th year ceremony.

This award covers the financial assistance to the awardees under the Indira Gandhi Scholarship Scheme until they complete their schooling and also reserves seats for them in professional courses like medicine, engineering and management course.

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