Mittal Patadiya, the Amdavadi girl who fought off robbers to thwart attack on her foster mother has been chosen for the prestigious Geeta Chopra award for year 2011.
Twelve-year-old Patadiya from Thakkarnagar in Naroda had to go through four hours of surgery and 350 stitches to close the wounds she had received during her fight with robbers.
Thanks to Mittal’s courage, two of the intruders were captured after neighbours rushed to the girl’s house after hearing her screams.
“They had attacked my mother so I decided not to let him go. He was caught but another one escaped,” Mittal said. “She is my Jhansi ki Rani,” her foster mother Kavita Ben kept repeating.
Mittal, who wants to become a doctor, said she was not scared of anything but her teacher’s scolding. Geeta Chopra Award was constituted in the memory of Chopra children who laid their lives while confronting their kidnappers, and are given to a boy and a girl respectively for acts of bravery. Nineteen other children, including 8 eight girls, will receive the awards from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of the Republic Day. The names of the 24 brave hearts were announced by the Indian Council for Child Welfare on Wednesday.
Kapil, 15, who made the supreme sacrifice while saving his schoolmates from flood fury in Uttarakhand, is among the five children to get the National Bravery Awards posthumously this year.
