National Bravery Award 2008 given away

Recognizing the outstanding courage and selfless scarifies, the Vice President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Friday presented the ‘National Bravery Awards – 2008’ to 20 brave children, including 12 girls at a function organised by Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) in capital.

One posthumously award has been given away among these, while the government only announced 19 names except one for security reasons who is the prime eyewitness of last year’s Delhi serial blast and helped the police in sketching out the accused terrorists.

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The Vice President honoured that 12-year-old boy who saw two suspects when he was selling balloons at Barakhambha Road where a bomb exploded in dustbin on September 13, 2008.

The prestigious special bravery award ‘Geeta Chopra Award’ and ‘Sanjay Chopra Award’ for 2008 has been given to Km. Prachi Santosh Sen from Madhya Pradesh and Master Saumik Mishra of Uttar Pradesh respectively. These awards are instituted in 1978 in the memory of Chopra children who laid their lives while confronting their kidnappers.

Prachi (10) saved four children from getting electrocuted in which her left hand had sternly burnt, while Saumik fought single headedly with two goons who entered his home to theft.

Another esteemed special bravery award ‘Bapu Gayadhani Award’ was awarded to Km. Asu Kanwar (14) (Rajasthan) for displaying amazing courage in standing up against child marriage, while late Kavita Kanwar and Km. Seema Kanwar (16) of Chhatisgarh jointly got this award for saving their friends from an accidental fire; Kavita lost her life in this accident.

Bapu Gayadhani Award has been instituted in 1988.

The name of other awardees are: Master Gagan J. Murthy, Km. Bhoomika J. Murthy (Karnataka), Km. Silver Kharbani (Meghalaya), Master Yumkhaibam Addison Singh (Manipur), Master Vishal Suryaji Patil (Maharashtra), Master Shahanshah (Uttar Pradesh), Km. Dinu K.G. (Kerala), Master M. Marudu Pandi (Tamil Nadu), Km. Anita Kora, Km. Rina Kora (West Bengal), Km. Manjusha A (Kerala), Km. Kritika Jhanwar (Rajasthan), Km. Hina Quereshi (Rajasthan) and Master Manish Bansal (Haryana).

The National Bravery Award was initiated by ICCW in 1957 in which selected children across the country receive financial assistance from Central government until they complete their school education under a sponsorship programme of ICCW while some states additionally sponsor those children until ending their academic and professional education. Moreover, those opt professional course, get scholarship under council’s ‘Indira Gandhi Scholarship Scheme’ along with reservation in medical and engineering colleges and polytechnics.

A high-powered committee comprising representatives of several Ministries/Departments, NGOs and Members of ICCW made the selections. Till now, a total of 756 children comprising 541 boys and 215 girls have been selected for this award since its institution.

All the honoured children get the chance to participate in the Republic Day Parade riding on caparisoned elephants.