Little bravehearts to be awarded by PM on Jan 23

On October one, 2007, six year old Bhoomika and her twin brother Gagan saved a baby who got trapped between two fighting bulls in Bangalore's JP Nagar.

The two little heroes who performed the courageous deed as scared onlookers just looked on, will be felicitated with the Bravery Award by prime minister Manmohand Singh at a ceremony on January 23 along with 18 other winners.

Among other bravehearts this year is 13 year-old Saumik Misra of Uttar Pradesh, who won the Sanjay Chopra bravery award for having fought two goons single-handedly to foil a theft attempt.

All the awardees will participate in the Republic Day parade riding caparisoned elephants.

The prestigious Geeta Chopra award has been conferred on 10 year old Prachi Santosh Sen of Madhya Pradesh who saved four children from getting electrocuted. Prachi's left hand was severely burnt and the fingers had to be amputated.

"There must be some special treatment in advanced countries like the US. If I get the opportunity to meet the president and prime minister, I will request them for help so that I can take my child to a foreign country," her father Santosh Sen said.

Sen, who is a teacher in a local school, said the Madhya Pradesh Government had given them Rs 1,80,000 for her treatment.

"I am extremely happy that I could save lives of four others," said Prachi who wants to become a doctor.

Indian Council for Child Welfare president Gita Siddhartha said all the 20 children - 12 girls and eight boys - have been selected out of thousands of recommendations.

"These little kids are the future of the country," she said introducing the children to reporters.

Among them was 12-year old Rahul, a prime eyewitness to the September 13 blasts at Barakhamba road near Connaught Place in Delhi, who figured in the list of awardees for providing vital information about the suspected terrorists to the police.

Rahul helped the police to draw the sketches of the two suspected terrorists and said he could recognise the men who kept bombs in a dustbin which exploded few minutes later.

Asked what he aspires to become, Rahul, who lives in a slum area, said he wants to become a police officer.

Like Rahul, 14-year-old Asu Kanwar from Rajasthan also got the award for showing extraordinary courage in standing up against child marriage.

Asu, 16-year-old Seema Kanwar and late Kavita Kanwar from Chhattisgarh have been given the prestigious Bapu Gaidhani awards.

Seema and Kavita braved a fire to try and save their friends. Kavita lost her life in the incident.

The other recipients are Kritika Jhanwar, Hina Quereshi (Rajasthan), Silver Kharbani (Meghalaya), Anita Kora, Rina Kora (West Bengal), Dinu KG, Manjusha A (Kerala), Y Addison Singh (Manipur), Master Shahanshah (UP), Vishal Suraj Patil (Maharastra), M Marudu Pandi (Tamil Nadu), Manish Bansal (Haryana).