July 2, 2019. Muolbem village, Churachandpur district, Manipur. Three girls were drowning in a large fish pond. There were no lifeguards. No trained rescuers. No adults close enough to reach them in time. There was only a 10-year-old boy named Lalkansung. Master Lalkansung, a 10-year-old boy from Churachandpur, was conferred the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2020 for bravery for saving three girls from drowning at a pond located at Muolbem, Churachandpur, on July 2, 2019.He did not stop to calculate the risk. He did not wait for someone older, someone stronger, someone more qualified to arrive. He saw three lives in danger, and he jumped into that pond and pulled each of them to safety. Three girls. All alive. Because a 10-year-old boy from Manipur chose courage over fear in the space of a single, unrepeatable moment.
28 Jul 2026 | 16:22
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The boy behind the bravery
Lalkansung is the youngest child of Hranglienkhum and Rachel Lalhminghlu. He grew up in Churachandpur, a district in the hill region of Manipur, far from the headlines and the spotlights that eventually found him. He is not a trained swimmer in any competitive sense. He is not a child who was groomed for heroism or prepared for emergencies. He was simply a boy who saw something terrible happening and responded with everything he had. That, perhaps, is what makes his story so powerful for parents to think about. Not that he was exceptional in the way we usually mean the word. But that he was instinctively, immediately, and completely selfless in a moment when most adults would have frozen.
The award at Rashtrapati Bhavan
President Ram Nath Kovind, in the presence of various dignitaries including Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, presented the award to 22 children from various parts of the country. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a tablet, a medal, a certificate, and a citation. The awardees also participated in the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi on January 26, 2020. A boy from a village in Churachandpur, standing at Rashtrapati Bhavan, receiving one of the highest honours India gives to its children. It is the kind of image that stays with you.
What Lalkansung’s story teaches Indian parents
This is where the story moves from being simply inspiring to being genuinely useful for every parent reading this, thinking about the child sitting somewhere in their home right now. Lalkansung did not become brave on the day he jumped into that pond. He was already brave before that moment arrived. The moment did not create his courage; it revealed it. And courage, character, and compassion are not things children are born with or without. They are things children absorb, gradually and quietly, from the homes they grow up in.
Here is what parents can take from this story:
Teach children to notice when someone needs help. Not to look away. Not to assume someone else will handle it. But to pay attention to the world beyond themselves, to the people around them, to the moments when something is wrong and they might be the only one close enough to do something.Teach children that doing the right thing is more important than being safe from embarrassment. Lalkansung did not jump into that pond because he knew it would be celebrated. He jumped because three people needed help. That orientation toward others, toward what is right, is something parents model every day in small moments that children watch and remember.Celebrate acts of kindness and courage in your home. When children see adults recognise and honour brave, compassionate behaviour not just academic excellence or competitive achievement they learn what is truly valued. They learn what kind of person to be. Tell your children stories like this one. Not as a lesson, not as a lecture, but simply as a story. Children who grow up hearing about other children who did brave and beautiful things develop a sense that such things are possible. That ordinary people do extraordinary things. That heroes do not wait to grow up.
Heroes do not wait to grow up
Lalkansung was 10 years old. He had no training, no backup, no guarantee that he would succeed. He had only the conviction, in that moment, that he had to try. Three families in Churachandpur have their daughters today because of that conviction. Three girls went home. Three sets of parents did not have to face the unimaginable. And a boy from Manipur stood at Rashtrapati Bhavan and showed the whole country what it looks like when a child has been raised to care about someone other than himself. That is not a small thing. That is everything.
