The boy who stood by his father

The recognition

Ajay Raj of Agra district, Uttar Pradesh, received the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2025 in the Bravery category, presented by President Droupadi Murmu at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on 26 December 2025. The official list records that he saved his father from a crocodile attack near their village river, and the President named him in her address among children who had saved the lives of others.

What the reports describe — and what they don’t

News reports describe a July morning at the Chambal river near Bah, where his father had gone to fetch water: the crocodile caught his father’s leg, and Ajay struck at it with a stick until it let go. The incident narrative traces mainly to one original news report and its rewrites, and the reports do not print the year of that July — 2025 follows from the award coverage.

This story keeps those limits visible. It also states plainly: confronting a wild animal is never something a child should attempt; Ajay acted in a sudden emergency involving his own father.