• President Droupadi Murmu conferred Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar on 11 children on January 23.

• The government gives the PMRBP award to children for their exceptional achievements.

• There were six boys and five girls among the awardees from 11 states and Union territories. Each awardee was given a medal, a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a certificate.

• This year, the PM Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP) was conferred on 11 children selected for their exceptional achievement in the fields of art and culture (4), bravery (1), innovation (2), social service (1), and sports (3).

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar

• The government of India has been conferring awards to children for their exceptional achievement.

These awards were given in the following categories:

i) National Child Award for Exceptional Achievements - since 1996

ii) National Child Welfare Award (individual) - since 1979

iii) National Child Welfare Award (institution) - since 1979

iv) Rajiv Gandhi Manav Sewa Award - since 1994.

• During 2017-18, the scheme of awards was reviewed and the government introduced these awards under the name of “Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar”. 

These Awards were given under the following categories:

i) Bal Shakti Puraskar (earlier known as National Child Award)

ii) Bal Kalyan Puraskar (earlier known as National Child Welfare Award).

• In 2022, the category of Bal Shakti Puraskar was subsumed under Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar.

• Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar are to be given to children with exceptional abilities and outstanding achievements in the fields of innovation, scholastic, sports, arts & culture, social service and bravery which deserve recognition.

• The name of awardees will be announced on December 26 of every year on the occasion of ‘Veer Baal Diwas’.

• The award is conferred on children in the age group 5-18 years for their excellence in different fields.

• The nominations for the award were received in online mode on the award portal of the government of India — www.awards.gov.in. 

• A total of 742 applications were received on the portal, out of which 684 were found fit for consideration. The selection of awardees was made by a selection committee under the chairpersonship of the Union Women and Child Development Minister.

This year’s awardees:

• Among the awardees was Aadithya Suresh who even after being diagnosed with a bone disorder since birth (osteogenesis imperfecta) transformed himself into a singer. As of now, he has performed at more than 500 singing events including those on different TV channels. He has won the award in the field of art and culture.

• M. Gauravi Reddy was another awardee in the field who is an accomplished dancer and has performed classical dance on various platforms.

• Other awardee included Shreya Bhattacharjee, 12, a tabla artiste who has registered a record of playing the instrument for the longest duration in India Book of Records. Besides various awards, Shreya stood first in the All North-East Tabla Solo Competition, All India Pt. Rupak Kulkarni Music Competition and All India Tabla Solo Competition. She was also awarded a gold medal at the 9th Cultural Olympiad of Performing Arts.

• In the bravery category, Rohan Ramchandra Bahir was awarded for saving a woman's life by jumping into a river.

• In the category of innovation, Aditya Pratap Singh Chauhan was awarded for developing a unique technology named ‘MICROPA’ to detect and filter microplastics from drinking water. The detection is done through Nile Red Dye, followed by quantification using a computer algorithm. Project ‘MICROPA’ is not just an efficient solution to micro- plastics, but is also cost-effective.

• Another awardee in the innovation category was Rishi Shiv Prasanna who with a certified IQ level of 180 is among the youngest certified android application developers. He also runs a YouTube channel and in every episode he shares insights on science-related topics.

• In the field of sports, Shauryajit Ranjitkumar Khaire who is a 10-year-old national level Mallakhamb player was awarded. This youngest medallist among all sports has bagged a bronze medal in the standing Pole Open Category at the National Games 2022 held in Gujarat. Apart from this, he has received three bronze medals at the National Level Championships conducted by the Mallakhamb Federation of India.

• Hanaya Nisar was also awarded in the sports category. She has been an SQAY martial arts player for the last seven years. She represented India in the 3rd World SQAY Martial Arts Championship at Chingju, South Korea (October, 2018) at the tender age of 12 years and bagged a gold medal. SQAY is the ancient traditional martial art of Kashmir.

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