Aaditya Vijay Brahmane, 12, who died while saving his two cousins from drowning, is among the 19 children who have been selected from across the country for this year’s Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, Union ministry of women and child development said on Friday.
Brahmane, who will be conferred the Bravery award posthumously, hailed from the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. He and his cousins were playing near the river’s shore, which had shallow water when his cousins started drowning. “In his haste to save his cousins lives Aaditya ventured deeper into the water, not realizing the treacherous slope. Unfortunately, Aaditya had gone too deep, making it difficult to locate him immediately. Despite this valiant effort to save his cousins, Aaditya sacrificed his life,” the ministry said in the statement.