On Friday, December 26, 2025, a total of 20 children from 18 States and Union Territories were honored with the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, a top civilian honor given to children in India. Among them, eight were awarded to children who excelled in sports. The award was presented by President of India Droupadi Murmu at the Vigyan Bhawan venue in New Delhi.
The list included names like Vaibhav Suryavanshi (Cricket), Jyoshna Sabar (Weightlifting), Vishwanath Karthikey Padakanti (Mountaineering), para-athletes Jyoti and Shivani Uppara, Yogita Mandavi (Judo), Anushka Kumari (Football) and Pragnika Vaka (Chess).
The seven young female Indian prodigies’ individual excellence in sports is discussed below
Jyoshna Sabar
The Indian weightlifter from Odisha recently bagged gold at the International Junior Weightlifting Championship held in Peru. In addition to that, she set a record for the heaviest weight lifter in her category. The 17-year-old’s success began with a bronze medal win at the 2023 Asian Youth Junior Weightlifting Championship in Albania, followed by a gold victory at the 2024 Asian Junior Weightlifting Championship in New Delhi.
Jyoti and Shivani Uppara
The 17-year-old para-athlete from Sirsa, Haryana, has achieved 12 medals in national and international level competitions across sports events, like shot put, discus throw and javelin throw. In 2023, she won a silver medal each in javelin throw and shot put events, along with a bronze in discus throw, during an event held in Thailand.
Meanwhile, Shivani is a para-athlete from Andhra Pradesh known for her contribution in shot-put and javelin throw F45. At the 2023 World Ability Sports Games in Thailand, she was declared the U20 champion. Her prominence followed in the 2024 National Junior & Sub-Junior Para Athletics Championships held in Bengaluru. In that tournament, Shivanu bagged three gold medals in the U-17 100m Run, Javelin Throw, and Shot Put, respectively.
Yogita Mandavi
The 14-year-old judo player from Chhattisgarh, Yogita, the 2025 season was a promising 2025 season. She won a gold medal at the state-level open judo and school judo competitions, followed by a bronze at the National Open Judo Championship in Hyderabad. Back in 2024, she won a gold medal at the state-level school judo championship in Durg and one silver medal each in the Khelo India Regional Competition in Nashik and the other at the Khelo India National Judo Championship in Kerala.
Anushka Kumari
The 14-year-old forward started playing football at the age of six. Five years later, she then joined the Residential Girls Football Centre in Hazaribagh and soon enough she caught the attention of national scouts during the Sub Junior National Football Championship, in which she represented Jharkhand. In 2024, she was part of India’s squad in the SAFF U-16 Women’s Championship held in Nepal. In that tournament, she finished with five goals. Recently, in the 2025 SAFF U-17 Women’s Championship, Anushka scored 10 goals in seven matches and also registered her first hat-trick in the match against Bhutan.
Pragnika Vaka
The 7-year-old girl from Surat was recently crowned the 2025 world champion at the 2025 FIDE World School Championship in the Under-7 Girls event held in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, in March. Besides the seven dominating girls, also included in the award list are cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi and mountaineer Vishwanath Karthikey Padakanti.
