National Bal Shree Honour

National Bal Shree Honour
National bal shree honour plaque
Awarded by National Bal Bhawan
Type	Civilian
Category	Children between age 09-16
Instituted	1995
Last awarded	2015 (for the year 2011 & 2012)

The National Bal Shree Honour is awarded to creative children in the age group of 9–16 years.National Bal Shree Honour given by National Bal Bhawan an autonomous body of Ministry of Human Resource Development (India).The Honour includes a plaque, a certificate, educational resources and a cash prize. National Bal Shree Honour is usually given by President of India in Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. National Bal shree Honour lies among 3 President's Award of India, ranking 1st, followed by National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement and thus Bal Shree is one of the highest child award of the nation.

In Hindi the word 'Bal' means a child and 'shree' denotes fame and also used as an aura of glory.Shree also stands for Goddess of Wealth and Goddess of Knowledge.Therefore, the epithet ‘Bal Shree’ was considered to be the most appropriate for defining the attributes of those very creative young ones, who possess unmatchable qualities, unique approach and innovative ways and thereby they not only enrich the society but also cover themselves with glory. Such children are an asset to the society and therefore, it was considered to honour them as Bal Shree.

Bal Shree Scheme was conceived in 1993. After working out its modalities, it was finally launched in 1995.

The Bal Shree Honour is awarded to creative children in the age group of 9–16 years in the following areas of expression.

The selection of creative children in four areas is done at three levels:

At this level National Bal Bhavan and all affiliated State Bal Bhavans undertake preliminary screening for selecting candidates for National level camp. A 2- days camp for member children is organized at State Bal Bhavans. After local selection 8 children (2 in each stream) are nominated by the affiliated Bal Bhavans for their respective Zonal level camps. An additional nomination is sent in case the nominee is a child of special needs or from tribal areas.

In the zonal level, the country has been divided into different zones – North, East, West, Central, and South. As there are large number of Bal Bhavans in the southern region, South Zone has further been divided into two zones – South-I and South-II Zones. Every year different Zonal Centers are identified for organizing zonal selection camps. As there are certain states where there are no Bal Bhavans, representation of these states are ensured through the Chief Secretaries of these states. Children selected at the local levels participate in these 3-days zonal level camps where the second round of selections is made by local experts, specialists from the Zone and National Bal Bhavan. The local resource persons are thoroughly briefed by the National Bal Bhavan before the start of the camps.