All about National Bravery Awards That You Should Know [VIDEO]

Every year, National Bravery Awards are presented to the brave children from across the country to appreciate their bravery during the needy hours. The National bravery Awards 2018 will be given to 18 brave hearted children out of whom three awardees will be presented the award posthumously. The history of national bravery award is vast, starting from its origination in 1957. What is this award, how students are shortlisted for this award and what are the benefits that the awardee gets? These are some of the important questions that every one of you must know.

What are National Bravery Awards?

National Bravery awards are a set of different awards that are presented to the brave children’ under 16 years of age who showed the meritorious acts of bravery during the odd time. The government of India and Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) is responsible to present this award. Talking about the history of national Bravery Award, it came into existence in 1957 after then PM Jawahar Lal Nehru encountered an incident where a child showed his bravery to protect many lives.

The Incident of October 1957:

It was the incident of 2nd October 1957 when then Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was watching a performance at the Red Fort. During the performance, there was a fire caused due to short circuit. Without any second thought, Harish Chandra Mehra, a 14-year-old Scouts & guides candidate showed his bravery and rescued numerous people from the fire.

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Pandit Nehru, watching this was highly inspired by the bravery of young child. He then proposed to start a separate award to honor the brave children. As a result, the first National Bravery Award was presented to Harish Chandra Mehra on 4th February 1958.

Different Types of National Bravery Awards:

There is not a single award which is presented under the National Bravery Awards. There are multiple award categories that are mentioned below:

• Bharat Award: The Brave award was introduced in 1987 for children who showed exceptionally outstanding gallantry deeds.
• Geeta Chopra Award: It was introduced in 1978 for girl Bravehearts.
• Sanjay Chopra Award: It was introduced in 1978 for boy Bravehearts.
• Bapu Gaidhani Awards: This award was started in 1988 which is given to three children.
• General Awards: It was started in 1957.

How Are Children selected for national Bravery Award?

The selection of National Bravery Award comprises of multiple nominations from different states, across the country. The selection is done every year via form submission from different states. The forms are made available from ICCW website.

In the form, the brave story of the children needs to be written within 250 words allotted space along with the birth proof, any appreciation proves in terms of newspaper clips or any FIR (if registered). The nominations are required to be sent before the 30th of September, every year.

What is the Eligibility for National Bravery Awards?

The eligibility to apply for the nominations of national bravery award is simple. The child must be between 6-18 years of age. The Incident must happen between the 1st of July of the previous year and 30th of June of the current year.

Under the award, the awardee is honored with a medal along with an appreciation certificate and some pre-decided cash amount. Apart from this honor, the children are also given multiple gifts from philanthropic organizations. The awardees are given the opportunity to attend the Republic Day parade. The Braveheart children’s are gifted with financial assistance till they complete their schooling. Some states even offer financial assistance for higher education. The ICCW bestow financial support through the Indira Gandhi Scholarship. There are many other support provided to the national bravery awardees from state government as well as the government of India.

Here is the National Bravery Awards 2018 List: