Ranchi boy Himadrish Suwan (20) has bagged the prestigious Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award-2015 for excellence in social service and contribution towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet Clean India campaign.
A second-year political science student of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College under Delhi University (DU), Himadrish received the trophy and the certificate from Union minister for mines and steel Narendra Singh Tomar during an event organised by Utthan Samiti at Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, on Sunday.
The youngest recipient, he was among 21 eminent social workers, poets, artists, writers and sportspersons selected from across the country for the award, which was instituted by the Union government last year for motivating people to achieve excellence in the field of social service as well as to realise the former President's goal of "clean, green, healthy and educated India".
"It is an honour not only for me or my state, but for the entire country because it will help encourage the youth to join the Clean India campaign. To win the Dr Kalam award is like a dream come true. Apart from being a great scientist, he was one of the greatest human beings the world ever knew," Himadrish, a resident of Madhukum area in Ranchi and son of businessman Anurag Chiranjeev, told The Telegraph over phone on Monday.
The 20-year-old is the founder of Clean India, Glow India (Mission-e-Safai), an initiative by DU students for Swachh Bharat that has drawn appreciation from the Prime Minister himself.
Moreover, as an activist, he has filed around 100 RTIs so far and received due recognition from the Right to Information Institute of India (RTII) in 2013.
Last year, he hogged limelight for filing an RTI that forced the railways to change 16 coaches of Ranchi-New Delhi Rajdhani Express. "Earlier, it was ICF coaches (conventional bogies), which are not fit for high-velocity trains like Rajdhani Express. After the RTI, they changed the coaches to LHB," he added.
Himadrish also represented Indian Youth at the Global Opportunity Panel-2015 on the issue of youth unemployment while he became one of the youngest recipients of International Association for World Peace Global Award in 2014.
