Inclusion advocacy · INDIA
Trekked to Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar with his father in April 2022 and campaigns for the inclusion of children with disabilities; received the PMRBP 2024 (Social Service).
9 when he received the national award in January 2024
Madhya Pradesh · India
BEHIND THE RESULT
Avnish Tiwari lives in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He was adopted as a baby by Aditya Tiwari, who has written about first seeing him in an orphanage and deciding to become his father; the adoption was completed in January 2016. Avnish has Down syndrome, and his family speaks about it openly, with one message: children like him belong in every part of life. In April 2022, Avnish trekked with his father to Everest Base Camp in Nepal and up Kala Patthar, a point 5,545 metres (about 18,200 feet) high. The Golden Book of World Records lists him as the ‘Youngest Differently Abled Child to Trek Himalayan Kala Patthar’ — that title is the record body’s own.
Before the trek, his father told ANI that the idea was “to change the mindset about specially challenged children” and to open up sports like trekking to them. Avnish is also an athlete with Special Olympics Bharat, his father said in the same interview. The family’s advocacy includes the #WalkForInclusion campaign, which Aditya Tiwari describes in his own published account, and talks the father and son give together. On 22 January 2024, Avnish received the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for 2024 in the Social Service category from President Droupadi Murmu at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. He was the only awardee from Madhya Pradesh among the 19 children honoured.
What is one activity in your school that could be made easier for a classmate who learns or moves differently? That is a question from us, not part of Avnish’s record.
Source-based story · the activities are prompts for readers.
Open the article edition →Trekked to Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar with his father in April 2022 and campaigns for the inclusion of children with disabilities; received the PMRBP 2024 (Social Service).
2024-01-22 · Supporting source ↗
Press Information Bureau · Ministry of Women and Child Development · 23 January 2024 ↗Government release — official awardee list
ANI · 13 April 2022 ↗Wire news report
KnockSense · April 2022 ↗Post-trek news report
Original source ↗
Clean-air innovationTamil Nadu · India
Solar-powered ironing cart; 2020 climate-prize winner.
Childhood achievement archive · 17 described in UNICEF’s 2024–25 advocate profile, not her current age
Read the story →UNICEF · individual photographer not stated on reviewed page ↗Source photograph · see credit
Community supportPunjab · India
Carried water, tea and food to soldiers posted near his Ferozepur village during Operation Sindoor (May 2025).
10 when reported in December 2025
Read the story →Saptashwa TV ↗Source photograph · see credit
Environmental innovation (dust-free thresher)Uttar Pradesh · India
Barabanki student (Agehra village) who in Class 8 built a ~₹3,000 dust-free wheat thresher (fan draws dust into a water trap) with her science teacher; DST INSPIRE Award 2023 (reported as Uttar Pradesh’s only awardee that year), national exhibition, Sakura Science Programme in Japan (June 2025); PMRBP 2025, Environment — the category’s sole recipient — aged 17. The official list names her “Pooja” only; the surname Pal rests on converging press.
Aged 17 at the award (December 2025)
Read the story →BBC News Hindi / Pooja Pal via The Better India ↗Source photograph · see credit
