Heroes: The 24 bravehearts of India

These children displayed courage and exceptional heroism in saving the lives of others without caring for their own. They are the National Bravery Award winners of 2015. Know more about their deeds of courage and what makes them true heroes-

Although efforts were made to bring out their full heroic stories but there are children whose full story could not found and compiled. For them a general description of their heroic deed has been given.

1. Kumari Resham Fatma ( Bharat Award) - She was waylaid by her 38-year old maternal uncle. The man she had known her whole life was now wielding a knife. He forced her into a waiting car and asked her to marry him. When she refused, he held her hair, pulled her towards him and holding up a big plastic bottle, calmly started pouring acid on her head. Through the searing pain that shot through her head, arms and thighs, Resham managed to push him and jump out of the car. She ran, and was chased by her uncle for several minutes until she managed to get into an auto and head straight to the police station.

2. Gunjan Sharma (Geeta Chopra Award) – She displayed exemplary valour in saving her friends from the clutches of the abductor. Pleaded with gunman to take her alone hostage and let the others go. Gunjam went with the kidnapper on foot towards Nagaland while giving time to the other 10 children and the driver of the van in which she was travelling , time to escape.

3. Master Devesh Kumar ( Sanjay Chopra Award) - He was shot in the stomach after chasing down goons who were making away with jewellery stolen from the school principal. “I will always chase bad people and protect the weak,” he says.

The rest all are Bapu Gaidhani Awardees -

4. Master Rumoh Meto - He risked his own life to save his cousin Mega who was nearly electrocuted. The incident occurred when Regional Quality Monitoring Team, Guwahati was monitoring the project Implementation work at Hunli under Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran implemented by Indo Power Project Limited, Kolkata. Mega somehow got stuck to the 33 kv live wire, and remained so for about 30 seconds before Rumoh Meto could pull him away in his second attempt.

5. Late Kumari Riya Chaudhary - She stood in front of her father and took the bullets aimed at him. “There was a property dispute in the family and the goons came with guns and started shooting. My daughter saw this happening and she came and shielded me from the bullets. She died instantly” , says her visibly grief-stricken father Suresh Pal.

6. Late Kumari Monika - She went to the Alaknanda river and there she saw a 10 year boy slipping and galling into the river. Without caring for her own life, she jumped in and saved the boy but couldn`t save herself and was washed away.

7. Kumari Zeal Marathe - Badly wounded children wailing for help, injured teachers unable to move but succour nowhere in sight. She was stuck amid this horror when the school bus in which she was travelling with 45 others met with an accident. Lucky to get away with minor wounds, she jumped out of the window and gathered people to remove the injured from the bus. Acting swiftly, she somehow entered the mangled bus and found the diary from the teacher's handbag. She first called the parents whose kids were seriously injured. “I could see my friend's hand sliced into two, there was glass coming out of people’s faces, one teacher’s skull seemed to have cracked and there was a lot of screaming and moaning and I could also see that I was the only one unhurt. Now, I could either cry or try to do something about it,” she said.

  8. Master Hiral Jitubhai Halpati - He saved others from drowning.

  

     9. Late Master Gaurav Kumar Bharti - He died trying to save others from whirlpools.

10. Master Sahanesh R - He saved schoolchildren who met with an accident while returning home. The accident occurred when the bus driver tried to avoid hitting a motorcyclist who was overtaking a car. The bus fell into a paddy field beside the road. Trapped inside, the children started screaming and shouting. Breaking the front glass of the bus, Sahanesh pulled the students and the driver out of the bus. Sahanesh and his brother received some injuries in the accident. Sahanesh saved several lives with his resolute, courageous and timely act.

11. Kumari Ashwini Bandu Ughade - She won the award for her “extraordinary bravery” by saving her sister from a ferocious leopard. Ashwini and her sister Rohini were returning from a neighbouring farm after collecting mangoes when the leopard attacked the latter.The leopard had caught Rohini’s head in its jaws and her legs in its paws. “ I hit the leopard on its head with mangoes and pulled her out of the animal’s jaws following which it fled,” she says.

12. Master L. Brainson Singh - He saved his younger brother from electrocution. His brother Wayengamba, was playing in the courtyard. He was trying to make a long rope by connecting a piece of ordinary rope with a live wire let down from a loose connection on the wall when he got electrocuted. Seeing his brother lying on the floor, Brainson immediately rushed to the spot and tried to move him but he too felt the shock. Brainson kicked off the wire yet again which was lying beneath Wayengamba so violently that he fell down with a sprain on his leg and bruises on his cheeks, but he succeeded in his effort.

13. Master G. Tooldev Sharma – He was watching television with his parents. He went to the washroom near the bamboo fence of his courtyard where he noticed a 3-year old boy falling into the pond located 30 feet away from his house. Tooldev immediately rushed to rescue the little boy from the 6 feet deep pond. Catching hold of his shirt's collar with one hand, Tooldev held onto a bamboo pole on the side of the pond. As he didn't know swimming, he shouted loudly for help. Both of them were then pulled out by his parents and neighbours.

14. Kumari Ripa Das (the youngest awardee) - There was a devastating fire at Bankar, were three shops, two houses were gutted. During that time Ripa’s mother, her elder sister and one year old brother was sleeping in their house. On getting fire alarm, mother and elder sister left the house to safety, leaving behind Ripa and her brother in the blazing house.But due to prompt action and bravery of Ripa came out of with her brother holding in her lap and managed to save herself and her brother.

15. Master Balram Dansena - He saved others from drowning

16. Master Rajdeep Das - He saved others from drowning.

17. Master Anjith. P - Anjith’s fete which brought him the award was his brave rescue of two children aged 15 years and 13 years, who had sunk into a marshy pool while fishing, barely managing to save himself.

18. Master Aqil Mohammad NK- He has been conferred the award for rescuing a four-year-old boy who had been caught in the strong currents in the Chaliyar river and was drowning.

19. Master Midhun PP - He rescued an eight-year-old who had fallen into a well. 

20. Master Stevenson Lawriniang- He saved others from drowning.

21. Late Master Mesak K. Remnalalnghaka - He died trying to save others from whirlpools.

22. Ms. Mhonbeni Equng - She managed to save her grandmother—considerably bigger than her—from drowning.

23. Master Labhanshu – Saved 2 people from drowning in Haridwar.

24. Master Vishal Becharbhai – He did not know how to swim but had jumped into water to save complete strangers from drowning. “My father always told me to protect those who were not as strong as me and when I saw those two little children drowning, I just had to jump in. I didn’t know who they were,” he said.

     

     We salute and honour their bravery.