National Bravery Award

The National Bravery Awards are a set of awards given annually to about 25 Indian children below 18 years of age for "meritorious acts of bravery against all odds." The awards are given by the Government of India and the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW). The award was instituted in 1957.The youngest national award was awarded to Veerangana Jhala in 2022 when she was only 6 years old from a village called Chuda in Gujarat.
The National Bravery Awards consist of five categories
On Gandhi Jayanti day, 2 October 1957, India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was watching a performance in Delhi's Ramlila ground, at the Red Fort. During the performance, a short circuit caused a fire to break out in a shamiana (decorated tent). Harish Chandra Mehra, a 14-year-old scout, promptly took out his knife and ripped open the burning tent, saving the lives of hundreds of trapped people. This incident inspired Nehru to ask the authorities to establish an award to honour brave children from all over the country. The first official National Bravery Awards were presented to Harish Chandra and one other child on 4 February 1958, by Prime Minister Nehru, and the ICCW ( Indian Council for Child Welfare) has continued the tradition ever since. The Sanjay Chopra Award and the Geeta Chopra Award were established in 1978, in memory of two Chopra children who lost their lives while confronting their kidnappers. The Sanjay and Geeta awards are given to a boy and a girl for acts of bravery. The Bharat Award was established in 1987, and the Bapu Gaidhani Award was established in 1980.
In 2001, Scholastic published a commemorative book featuring the winners of the 1999 National Bravery Awards. The book was entitled Brave Hearts.
Each year, the ICCW receives applications for the National Bravery Award. These applications come from official agencies such as local and district governments, school authorities, and councils for child welfare. The applications must be received by 30 September to be eligible for selection.
Awardees are selected by a committee constituted by the ICCW. This committee consists of representatives from leading government and non-government organizations, such as the secretariats of the president and the vice-president, the Central Social Welfare Board, the Indian Police, All India Radio, Doordarshan, the National Bal Bhavan, SOS Children's Villages of India.
The awards are usually announced on 14 November, Children's Day, or in January the following year, and later presented by the prime minister on the eve of the Republic Day, and prior to this the President hosts a reception in their honour, where the children meet the media. On 26 January, the awardees take part in the Republic Day Parade at Rajpath, New Delhi.
|Saved a youtuber from the River Yamuna during an earth quake. |12 Years |Telangana |- |2012 |Vicky Martin Singh |Confronted armed kidnappers and saved a girl. |16 Years |Andhra Pradesh |- |1996 |Vardhana |Confronted armed robber and helped police. |8 Years |Bihar |- |2000 |Sunil Singh |Confronted armed militants who had attacked their village. |9 Years |Jammu & Kashmir |- |2000 |Robert Cruiser |Confronted armed militants who had attacked their village. |13 Years |Jammu & Kashmir |- |2000 |Sunil Chand Rajan |Saved a little child of a 6-year-old sibling from a human-eating panther. |9 years
|Uttarakhand
|- |2001 |Surjeet Singh |Fought a night-long battle with a group of 40 militants who had surrounded their village. |18 years |Jammu & Kashmir |- |2001 |Amrik Singh |Fought a night-long battle with a group of 40 militants who had surrounded their village. |20 years |Jammu & Kashmir |- |2002 |Chinmay Sharma |Failed a robbery on a Mumbai train. |7 years |Maharastra |-
|2002 |Charu Sharma |Sustained knife injuries while trying to foil a robbery on a Mumbai train. |11 years |Maharashtra |- |2002 |Shambhavi Ray |Fought two men on a motorcycle and foiled their attempt to steal her mother's purse. |13 years |Delhi |- |2003 |C. Vanlalhruaia (posthumously) |Died fighting the dacoits. |17 years |Mizoram |- |2005 |Ratul Chandra Rabha |Chased the militants who killed their school teacher (subsequently one of the militants was caught). |17 years |Assam |- |2005 |Rituparna Boro |Chased the militants who killed their school teacher (subsequently one of the militants was caught). |15 years |Assam |- |2007 |Babita |Saved several schoolmates from drowning when their school bus fell into the Western Yamuna canal. She was studying 11th standard | 17 years |Haryana |- |2007 |Amarjeet |Saved several schoolmates from drowning when their school bus fell into the Western Yamuna canal. |15 years |Haryana |- |2008 |No Award | | |- |2009 |Gaurav Singh Saini |Saved 50–60 people in the 2008 stampede at the Naina Devi temple |13 years |Haryana |- |2010 |No Award | | | |- |2011 |Kapil Singh Negi (posthumously) |Helped younger schoolmates cross a flooded stream during rains and landslides, but he failed to save himself. |15 years |Uttarakhand |- |2012 |Tarang Atulbhai Mistry |Saved four people from drowning in Narmada River |17 years |Gujarat |- |2013 |Kumari Mahika Gupta |Saved her brother from floods at Kedarnath (Uttarakhand). |8 years |Delhi |- |2015 |Resham Fatama |An acid attack victim, who was kidnapped by her uncle(mother's cousin). On the way to her coaching class, he forced her into a car and poured acid over her head when she turned down a marriage proposal. She managed to escape. |16 years |Uttar Pradesh |- |2016 |Tarah Peju(Posthumous) |Saved her friends from drowning but failed to manage herself |8 years |Arunachal Pradesh |- |2017 |Nazia |Helped Police stop illegal gambling business |16 years |Uttar Pradesh |- |2018 |Kunwar Divyansh Singh |Saved his younger sister and 7 other kids from a bull attack. |13 years |Uttar Pradesh |}
Note: Many others who have received these awards are not listed in this due to the unavailability of the complete information about them.