President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar on 26 children, two individuals and three institutions at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on Tuesday. Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, Secretary, WCD, Rakesh Srivastava and other senior officers of the ministry, along with a large group of children living in Child Care Institutions of Delhi, attended the function. The 26 children who got the awards will participate in the Republic Day Parade on 26 January.

The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, the revamped award scheme of the WCD Ministry, is being given in two categories now. On Tuesday, 26 children were awarded in the category of Bal Shakti Puraskar, which was earlier known as National Child Award, under various fields such as innovation, social service, scholastic, sports, art and culture — and bravery, latest addition 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.

Apart from them, two individuals and three Institutions were awarded in the category of Bal Kalyan Puraskar, which was earlier known as National Child Welfare Award. The award for individuals consists of a cash prize of Rs 1, 00,000, a medal, a citation and a certificate for each, while that for the institutions carries a cash prize of Rs 5,00,000, a medal, a citation and a certificate for each. Individuals who are citizens of India and have made an outstanding contribution towards the cause of children in the field of child development, child protection or child welfare, impacting the lives of children for more than seven years, were eligible to apply for Bal Kalyan Puraskar.

A total of 900 applications had been received for the awards through a special portal created for the purpose. The winners were selected after a critical analysis by a committee comprising experts from varied fields such as sociology, psychology, mathematics, science, art, music and sports. The National Selection Committee, under WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi, took the final call.

The award portal had been developed by the National Informatics Centre.

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar: Complete list of winners 

BAL SHAKTI PURASKAR 

Bravery: Kartik Kumar Goyal (Madhya Pradesh); Adrika Goyal (Madhya Pradesh); Nikhil Jituri (Karnataka)

Innovation: Mohammed Suhail Chinya Salimpasha (Karnataka); Arunima Sen (Karnataka): Aswath Suryanarayanan (Tamil Nadu); Naisargik Lenka (Odisha); AU Nachiketh Kumar (Karnataka); Madhav Lavakare (Delhi)

Social Service: Aryamaan Lakhotia (West Bengal); Prathyaksha B R (Karnataka); Eiha Dixit (Uttar Pradesh)

Scholastic: Ayushman Tripathy (Odisha); Megha Bose (Rajasthan); Nishant Dhankar (Delhi)

Art & Culture: Raam M (Tamil Nadu); Dev Dushyant Kumar Joshi (Gujarat); Vinayaka M (Karnataka); Aryaman Agarwal (West Bengal); Trutpraj Atul Pandya (Maharashtra)

Sports: Shivangi (Haryana); R Praggnanandhaa (Tamil Nadu); Master Esow (Andaman & Nicobar Island); Priyam Tated (Andhra Pradesh); Master Anish (Haryana); Angel Vijay Deokule (Maharashtra)

BAL KALYAN PURASKAR 

Tashi Namgyal (Himachal Pradesh): Child Development (Individual)

Dr Sridhar Reddy Arumalla (Andhra Pradesh): Child Welfare (Individual)

Rangakahale (Karnataka): Child Development (Institution)

Samugam Trust (Jaly Home, Puducherry): Child Welfare, Child Protection, Child Development (Institution)

Hand in Hand India (Tamil Nadu): Child Welfare, Child Protection, Child Development (Institution)