The Government of India launched “Veer Gatha Project” as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav under which government has been introducing several events to mark to 75th year of India’s independence. Veer Gatha project was launched to inspire school children, by making them aware with stories of war heroes and brave hearts. The project aimed to disseminate the details of acts of bravery and life stories of the officers/personnel of the Armed Forces, other lawfully constituted forces and civilians, among the students. The students were motivated to frame different projects in the form of Poem / Paragraph / Essay / Painting / Multimedia Presentation (Enactment Video) on gallantry award winners and 25 best projects were to be rewarded nationally by Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Education. As a part of the project and to increase awareness among school students about the Gallantry Award winners of our country, the Ministry of Defence, through its field organisations, Army, Navy and Airforce, organized numerous virtual/face-to- face awareness programmes/sessions of one hour duration for schools across the country. During these interactive sessions, queries of students were answered and short videos/PPTs/ documentaries/brochures and various other resource material were shared with students.
The Veer Gatha Project 1.0 was organized by Ministry of Defence in partnership with Ministry of Education and MyGov at an all-India level from 21st October to 20th November 2021 for school students of standard III to XII in all States and Union Territories as well as all schools affiliated to CBSE.
The project witnessed huge number of participations of more than 8,03,900 students from 4,788 schools across the country making it a success. Students shared their essays, drawings, poems, and multimedia presentations in the honour of Bravehearts.
As a second part of the process, a National Committee selected a total of 25 students, dubbed as “Super 25”, after several rounds of evaluation and were declared the winners. The selected Super 25 were felicitated on 12 August 2022, in New Delhi by Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh. They were invited to New Delhi as special guests of Ministry of Defence. Furthermore, they also received a cash prize.
Out of total participations, a total of 19,123 shortlisted entries were uploaded by CBSE schools on the CBSE portal and 2701 entries were uploaded by the State Boards Schools on MyGov portal. The responsibility to evaluate the entries uploaded by CBSE schools were entrusted to 16 CBSE CoEs (Centre of Excellence) situated at different states in India. Teachers were deputed to evaluate the entries at regional level. Similarly, SCERTs were entrusted to evaluate the entries received on MyGov portal. After CBSE regional level and SCERT level evaluation, a National Level Committee was proposed by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, who selected the projects of Top 25 students from CBSE and State Board Entries.
After the overwhelming response and success of Veer Gatha Edition-1, the Ministry of Defence in coordination with Ministry of Education has now decided to launch Project Veer Gatha 2.0 which is proposed to be culminated with the prize distribution ceremony in January 2023. As per last edition, the project will be open for all the schools in all States and Union Territories. Following the similar steps as earlier, the Ministry of Defence, through field formations of Army/Navy/Airforce, will organize virtual/face-to-face awareness programs/sessions of one hour duration for schools across the country and during these interactive sessions, presentations will be made by the personnel of the armed forces on operation, battles resulting in conferment of awards. As part of the initiative, it is proposed that serving gallantry award winners would visit schools located in their respective stations. The interaction of the awardees with the students is scheduled from 07.09.2022 to 09.11.2022. The service personnel will answer queries of students. Where possible short videos/PPTs/ documentaries/brochures and other resource material will be shared with students.
As part of this project, the students can again frame different projects on gallantry award winners. Interdisciplinary and art-integrated activities like poem, essay, story, painting/drawing, videos would be considered as project activities. The best project will be rewarded nationally by MoD on the forthcoming Republic Day. The submission by the students can be made in any of the 22 Scheduled languages and English.
Project Veer Gatha 2.0 will be launched on CBSE IT platform (for CBSE schools) as well as MyGov Platform (for State Schools) for facilitating larger participation of students from all school boards in the country. Schools will need to register all participating students at the Gallantry Awards Portal of the MoD (https://www.gallantryawards.gov.in). A Unique ID will be given to all registered students. If a student's entry is selected at the school level, the Unique ID of that student will also be filled at the time of submission of entry at the CBSE/MyGov portal. Further, all unique IDs will be sent to MoD. With regard to CBSE schools, information will be available on CBSE website and with regard to schools (other than CBSE), MyGov link will be shared separately.
To know more about the Project and Gallantry Award Portal, the following links can be referred:
