Anantnag, Jan 26 (KNO): A 16-year-old girl from South Kashmir's Anantnag district has brought laurels to the entire J&K by bagging a very prestigious Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP), 2023 award.
Hanaya Nisar, a resident of Kokernag area of Anantnag, has been given this award as she had represented India and won the Gold Medal in the 3rd World SQAY Martial Arts Championship held in Chingju, South Korea in October 2018.
Hanaya, who is an 11th class student while talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that she feels very much honoured to receive this prestigious award and everyone around her including Mir Salma Rashid, whole Sqay federation of India, family and relatives are very much happy.
Hanaya has so far won dozens of gold medals in Martial arts at International, National and state level so far.
She has recently won gold medal in 23rd Sqay National Championship held in Jammu besides that she was given Champion of Champions title by Sqay federation of India.
"I guess the sports infrastructure needs more improvement as the biggest challenge that they have also faced is of Sponsorship that almost every sports person faces and I guess that is something which can create a great impact on your journey," she said when asked about sports infrastructure in J&K UT.
She said that Martial Arts needs to be prioritised across all the states of India not just J&K.
On asking about her future plans, she said she wants to continue playing Sqay Martial Arts and wants to pursue law as well.
My message to the youth of J&K will be that we should be focused towards our dreams, we should never give up on our dreams no matter what.
It is worth to mention here that the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar ('Prime Minister's National Award for Children'), formerly called the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement, is India's highest civilian honour for children, awarded annually by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Bal Puraskar is given to children aged five to 18 for their achievements in six categories: Art & Culture, Bravery, Innovation, Scholastic, Social Service, and Sports. Each PMRBP awardee receives a medal, a cash prize of Rs1 lakh, and a certificate.
This year, eleven children from across India were awarded for their outstanding achievements in the fields of art and culture (4), bravery (1), innovation (2), social service (1), and sports (3)—(KNO)