20 Brave Kids Won't Be Rewarded On R-Day Due To Tussle Between Govt And NGO That Gives Awards

Twenty brave children from across the country on Friday unwittingly walked into a raging controversy generated by the Centre dissociating itself from the National Bravery Awards, which have been given out by NGO Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) since 1957.

The ministry of women and child development had explained that this step was being taken because the NGO had been put under the scanner by Delhi HC over "financial integrity". The Centre has instituted its own Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar awards for which it has already shortlisted 26 children.

The kids awarded by the NGO are unlikely to be part of the R-Day parade and the disappointment showed on their faces. The NGO has no clarity on how the awards will be presented to them.

ICCW president Gita Siddhartha told TOI these were their own awards and they were going ahead with them. She said they have sent a letter to the PMO and defence ministry but got no reply so far. She refused to comment on the case.

"These awards were initiated by us and we do everything from scratch to identify these kids. What the ministry has to do with their felicitation is entirely their discretion. The move is just very disappointing. We will tell the brave children and their parents once we get more clarity," she told TOI.

The pluck and grit displayed by the winners of the National Bravery Awards is exemplary. The top honour, Bharat Award, has for the first time been given to two children who didn't lose their presence of mind when a group of heavily armed terrorists attacked the Sunjuwan army camp in Jammu on the night of February 10, 2018.

"When I first saw them, they looked exactly like what we have seen in the movies - black masks covering half their faces and big guns in their hands," recalled eight-year-old Gurugu Hima Priya, daughter of a havildar.

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"I couldn't think of anything and just asked them if they were Indians or Pakistanis. They told me they were from Pakistan and had come to kill Indians like me and my mother. By that time, they had already managed to hurt her with a grenade and she had collapsed."

Gurugu herself had splinter injuries on her left arm but kept the one who was most aggressive engaged for three to four hours despite a gun being held to her head even as the troops encircled the camp. Finally, she managed to convince the terrorists to let them go for medical help and quietly left the scene with her mother.

Thirteen-year-old Soumyadip Jana was around the same time pushing his mother and sister into a room to get them out of harm's way. He had blocked the main door with steel trunks and the terrorists couldn't break in. So, they lobbed a grenade and fired from an AK-56.

Soumyadip took the full force of the assault and suffered multiple splinter injuries. Alerted by the firing, security forces finally got the terrorists but the boy went into a coma for more than three months. He has undergone many surgeries and the left side of his body is still paralysed. He has also suffered vision and hearing loss besides some neuro impairment. However, he managed to flash a smile when his father said he was very proud of him. "I had to do this for my family, I could not let them die," he muttered.

The 20 awardees who turned up today ranged in age from six to 17. But Nitisha Negi of Delhi could not make it. At the age of 15, on December 10, 2017, she drowned while saving a friend when they had gone to Australia for a football tournament, a part of Pacific School Games. "My daughter was hours away from taking the flight back home and had gone to an Adelaide beach to enjoy as the previous two weeks had been hectic with all those matches. She had always been the brave one in our family, the one who went out of her way to help others. This time too she tried to help someone else but left us grieving for a lifetime," said her father, PS Negi.

Camelia Kathy Kharbyngar, 12, from Meghalaya braved flames in order to save her mentally unstable elder brother on July 6, 2017. She walked into their house that was on fire and got him out unharmed. "My aunt came out screaming from the house. Before we could figure anything out, my brother had gone inside. I called out to him but since too many people were screaming, he couldn't hear. I ran behind him and managed to get him out as the house collapsed behind us," she said.

Camelia, however, is disappointed that they will miss the Republic Day parade.