Dr. Achyuta Samanta, founder of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) received the National Award for Child Welfare-2017 on occasion of Children’s Day here on Tuesday.

President of India Ram Nath Kovind gave away the award to Dr. Samanta for his outstanding performance in the field of tribal child development and welfare.

Notably, KISS is a fully free, fully residential home for 27000 poorest of the poor indigenous children who are provided holistic education from Kindergarten to Post Graduation along with lodging, boarding, health care facilities besides vocational, life skill empowerment.

Apart from Dr. Samanta, the two other great personalities who were conferred with the award are Mahesh Jadhav and Anand Kumar.

The President of India also gave the National Child Awards-2017 in the presence of Minister of State for Women & Child Development, Dr. Virendra Kumar. The National Child Awards 2017 are given to celebrate the exceptional achievements of children; as well as to individuals and institutions who work for child welfare.

This year, the President honoured 16 children, out of which one child was given a gold medal and 15 children were given silver medals. The National Award for Child Welfare was conferred on 3 individuals and 5 institutions. The Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Award was conferred on 3 individuals.

National Award for Child Welfare (Individuals & Institutions)

These awards are given to deserving institutions and individuals for their outstanding performance in the field of child development and welfare. The awards were started with a view to recognize such voluntary action. The awards carry a cash prize of Rupees Three Lakh and a citation for each institution and Rupees One Lakh and a citation for each individual. So far 157 institutions and 103 individuals have been honoured with this prestigious award. The following are this year’s awardees:

Individuals

S.No Name State District
1 Sh. Anand Kumar Bihar Patna
2 Sh Mahesh Jadhav Karnataka Belagavi
3 Sh Achyuta Samanta Orissa Bhubaneswar