New Delhi: Every year, India rewards few of its daring and courageous kids who have astounded the country with their unmatched valor, by honoring them with the prestigious National Bravery Award.
This year too, we have 24 such kids who will be conferred with this honor by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24th January. Out of them, eight are girls and sixteen boys.
Sadly, four of them will be bestowed with the honor posthumously.
Those receiving the honor will be a part of the 26th January Republic Day parade. Let's find out the story of a few of them –
1) Riya Chaudhary (Bapu Gaidhani Award, posthumously)
Riya sacrificed her life to save her father on 10th May 2014 when some miscreants forcefully entered their house and started assaulting the family. During this when one of them aimed at him, Riya came in between and faced the bullet. She died on the spot.
Her mother says that she is proud to be a mother of such a brave daughter. Riya wanted to be an engineer when she was alive.
2) Gaurav Kumar Bharti (National Bravery Award, posthumously)
Gaurav, who hailed from Devariya, U.P. lost his life while saving a friend of his from drowning. He died on 11th March 2014.
Two friends of his, Vikas and Deva were bathing in Saryu River when Vikas started drowning. As soon as Gaurav saw this, he jumped into the 30 feet deep waters and managed to save his life however, got strangled in a maelstrom and couldn't save himself.
His father Shambhunath Bharti wants everybody to know about his son's brave deed while his mother says that he was intelligent and wanted to become an engineer.
3) Rumo Meeto
Rumo saved a man from high-voltage current. The incident is of 8th November 2013 of Hunli when the regional quality monitoring team of Hunli had charged the high-voltage transmission lines of Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme with electricity for inspection purpose.
Rumo was helping his parents in the farms at that time when he saw 32 year-old Meelu Mega unknowingly advancing towards the 33 KV high-tension lines. 13-year old Rumo immediately ran to save him. He suffered a shock yet continued making effort to save Meelu. He succeeded and both got saved.
4) Zeel Jitendra Marathe
Resident of Vadodara, Gujarat, Zeel Jitendra Marathe, saved some kids in a bus incident. On 20th February 2014, she and other kids of her school were going for a picnic to Shivrajpur along with their teachers. While returning from the trip, the driver lost control of the bus due to which the bus toppled towards right side and continued to drag for around 100 kms. The kids on the left side subsequently started falling from their seats. Seeing all this, Zeel somehow managed to come out of the bus and saved rest of the kids. She called up police and ambulance and in the meantime, made all the efforts to keep the other kids conscious.
5) Vishal Becharbhai Katosna
Vishal, hailing from Surendranagar, Gujarat, is a ten year old kid who saved lives of two kids from drowning. The incident is of 14 October 2013, when two 7-year old kids, Divyaben and Yash were bathing in a 15 to 20 feet deep lake.
Vishal's grandmother was washing clothes on the banks when she saw these two drowning. Immediately, she shouted for help. A man tried to help the kids but in vain.
Vishal rushed to save their lives and somehow brought both of them towards the bank. He wants to become a policeman.
6) Ashwini Bandu Ughade
Last year, on June 9, Ashwini was returning from farms with her younger sister Rohini after searching food for their family. Suddenly, while returning they had a confrontation with a leopard just 2 kilometers from their home. The leopard pounced on Rohini and took her head in its mouth and her feet in its claws. The fearless, Ashwini, threw the collected mangoes on the leopard and, with all the might, managed to save her sister.
