Chingakham Chanu Lamnganbi : Bal Shree 2011-2012 Awardee

Daniel Chabungbam *

Lamnganbi Chanu Chingakhan :: National Bal Shri Awardee for 2011-12

Name: Chingakham Chanu Lamnganbi
Father's Name: Chingakham Kyamba Meetei
Mother's Name: Chingakham ongbi Sandhyarani Leima
Address: Wangkhei Keithel Ashangbi

In a big achievement for the state of Manipur and the North Eastern States, a High School girl, Chingakham Lamnganbi Chanu from Manipur has been selected for the prestigious 'Balshree Award' for 2012 in the category of Creative Scientific Innovation. She has been selected for the award along with 60 children selected from all over India. She is the lone candidate for the award from the entire North eastern states and the coveted Balshree Award will be bestowed to her in the coming months by the President of India in a grand function to be held at Rastrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

This year's Balshree award for creative scientific innovation will be awarded to 12 students from across the country. The path to the prestigious national level award for children is chosen from the local level and zonal level. The local (state) level test was held on July 20 in 2011 where Lamnganbi was selected in the category of creative scientific innovation. She then participated in the Zonal Level Test held from 15 to 17 January 2012 at Patna. The final National Level Test was held at National Bal Bhavan at New Delhi from 1st to 5th October 2012.

15 years old Science Prodigy from Manipur, Chingakham Lamnganbi Chanu has been selected for the prestigious 'Balshree Award 2012' in the category of creative scientific innovation. Lamnganbi who hails from Wangkhei Keithel Asangbi in Imphal East is a class X student of the 'Heritage Convent' School, Imphal and is the eldest among three siblings. Besides her schooling, she involved herself a lot in various co-curricular activities through the 'Bal Bhavan', Imphal under the Guidance of one teacher, Tutu Singh.

The person who takes her to Bal Bhavan Imphal is the van driver, Kuber Yengkhom, who used to pick and drop her to School. Lamnganbi even cried when her parents did not show their liking in her wish to go Bal Bhavan in the beginning. But after her parents agreed, she never missed a single day to be in Bal Bhavan Imphal. There she learnt a lot academically, technically and even music and dances from the teachers. After Lamnganbi applied for Balshree award with the guidance from Tutu Singh, she was introduced to a renowned Science Activist, Koijam Tolendro Singh, who hails from Lamsang Bazar, by Tutu Singh. According to Lamnganbi, her experience at Bal Bhavan helped her a lot in bagging the award. The preparation for the award was so hard that she even does not have time to sleep properly apart from her normal academic studies. The inspiration was from Tutu Singh to take up scientific innovation where he also convinced the parents of Lamnganbi. For the local level test, she only got seven days for preparation.

During the preparation for Zonal Level Test of Balshree award, Lamnganbi represented Manipur in the National Children Science Congress as the youngest child scientist in the ten member state team after her selection at district level, state level Science Congress. In the National Children Science Congress held at Jaipur National University from 26th to 30th December 2012, she got the opportunity to interact with former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam, scientists from ASEAN countries and also students from various states of India.

Though there are four categories for the Balshree Award including Creative Art, Creative Performance, Creative Writing, and Creative Scientific Innovation, Lamnganbi Chanu is one of the twelve children from the entire country and is the only child from the North Eastern states to be selected in the field of Creative Scientific Innovation. For the year 2012, altogether sixty children from all over the country are selected for this year's prestigious Bal Shree Honour. Expressing her utmost joy over the achievement, Lamnganbi expressed that experiences helped her a lot in pursuing the award adding that bookish knowledge is not enough for the award and one should be an all rounder.

As Lamnganbi has been selected in the Creative Scientific Innovation and has an ambition to become a renowned scientist in her future life, the reportedly selection of Balshree awardees to work in NASA projects by the Child Development of the HRD Ministry of India, will be a perfect launch pad for the aspiring young scientist. Meanwhile, she also has other hobbies as well, which helped her a lot in bagging the award. For winning the Balshree Award, she gave the credit to her parents, Chingakham Kyamba Meetei and Chingakham Sandyarani Devi, her guide teachers, Tutu Singh, Science activist Koijam Tolendro Singh, her friends and her school Heritage Convent.

Apart from receiving the highest children development award given by the President of India for her unique creative innovation in Science, the achievement of Lamnganbi will inspire children of the North East region to take up challenges of competitions at the national level.

Read an announcement on Chingakham Chanu Lamnganbi here