President of India confers “Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar” today in New Delhi

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind conferred “Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar” – the revamped award scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India,to 26 children, 2 individuals and 3 institutions, today at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi. The Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi; Secretary, Shri Rakesh Srivastava and other Senior officers of the Ministry along with a sizeable number of children living in Child Care Institutions of Delhi attended the function.

The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar is being given in two categories from now on. 26 children were awarded in the category Bal Shakti Puraskar (earlier known as National Child Award) under various fields like Innovation, Social Service, Scholastic, Sports, Art & Culture and Bravery.The bravery award has been the latest addition of the Ministry to the scheme. Each award carries a medal, a cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, book vouchers worth Rs. 10,000/-, a certificate and a citation.These children will participate in the Republic day parade on 26.1.2019.

2 individuals& 3 Institutions were awarded in the Category of Bal Kalyan Puraskar(earlier known as National Child Welfare Award) . The award for individual consists of a cash prize of Rs. 1, 00,000/- (one lakh), a medal, a citation and a certificate to each awardee. The award for institution consists of a prize of Rs. 5,00,000/- each and a medal, a citation and a certificate.

The awardees were selected from a total of 900 applications received through a special portal created for the purpose. The winners were selected through a rigorous process of critical analysis by a committee comprising of experts from varied disciplines like Sociology, Psychology, Mathematics, Science, Art, Music, Sports etc. The final selection was made by the National Selection Committee; under the chairpersonship of the Hon’ble Minister, WCD.

In order to popularize the scheme amongst general public and make it more genial, this year the Ministry has launched an award portal on 01.08.2018 (i.e www.nca-wcd.nic.in) developed by NIC for accepting the applications online. A Child who is an Indian Citizen and residing in India could apply for National Child Award by registering on the web portal, filling the requisite information and attaching the relevant documents. In order to draw wide response from public, any citizen of India could nominate any child who has achieved excellence in any of the mentioned fields. For Bal Kalyan Puraskar, individuals who are citizens of India having made an outstanding contribution towards the cause of children in the field of Child Development, Child Protection or Child Welfare; thereby impacting the lives of children for more than 7 years were eligible for applying in this category.

Bal Shakti Puraskar  

S.No	Name	Category/Field	State
1.	Master Mohammed Suhail Chinya Salimpasha	Innovation	Karnataka
2.	Kumari Arunima Sen	Innovation	Karnataka
3.	Master Aswath Suryanarayanan	Innovation	Tamil Nadu
4.	Master Naisargik Lenka	Innovation	Odisha
5.	Master A U Nachiketh Kumar	Innovation	Karnataka
6.	Master Madhav Lavakare	Innovation	Delhi
7.	Master Aryamaan Lakhotia	Social Service	West Bengal
8.	Kumari Prathyaksha B R	Social Service	Karnataka
9.	Kumari Eiha Dixit	Social Service	Uttar Pradesh
10.	Master Ayushman Tripathy	Scholastic	Odisha
11.	Kumari Megha Bose	Scholastic	Rajasthan
12.	Master Nishant Dhankar	Scholastic	Delhi
13.	Master Raam M	Art & Culture	Tamil Nadu
14.	Master Dev Dushyant Kumar Joshi	Art & Culture	Gujarat
15.	Master Vinayaka M	Art & Culture	Karnataka
16.	Master Aryaman Agarwal	Art & Culture	West Bengal
17.	Master Trutpraj Atul Pandya	Art & Culture	Maharashtra
18.	Kumari Shivangi	Sports	Haryana
19.	Master R Praggnanandhaa	Sports	Tamil Nadu
20.	Master Esow	Sports	Andaman & Nicobar Island
21.	Master Priyam Tated	Sports	Andhra Pradesh
22.	Master Anish	Sports	Haryana
23.	Kumari Angel Vijay Deokule	Sports	Maharashtra
24.	Master Kartik Kumar Goyal	Bravery	Madhya Pradesh
25.	Kumari Adrika Goyal	Bravery	Madhya Pradesh
26.	Master Nikhil Jituri	Bravery	Karnataka