Bal Puraskar for 9-year-old who scaled Everest base camp after a battle with Down Syndrome

Avnish Tiwari is all of nine years old, but his life is already a story of tragedy and triumph. Born with a hole in his heart and Down Syndrome, he was abandoned at birth, and found himself in an orphanage in Indore. It was in 2014, at the Missionaries of Charity centre in Indore, when Aditya Tiwari, a software engineer in a multinational bank, first met the boy that would become his son. He was formally adopted, but this, too, was a struggle.

- Shruti Tomar

PICTURE OF DETERMINATION

But Avnish Tiwari overcame it all. He has given TEDx talks, trekked to the Mount Everest Base camp at the age of 7, and become an inspiration for children like him. On Monday, he met President Droupadi Murmu, and on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the youngest of this year’s 19 recipients of the Prime Minister National Children’s Award for 2024. The next milestone is to take pride of place at the Republic Day parade that will march down Kartavya Path on January 26.