The President of India, 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.