Kalam Honours India's Most Creative 9-to-16-Year-Olds

New Delhi, Jun 1 (UNI) As many as 22 of India's ''most creative children'' in 2006 were honoured by President A P J Abdul Kalam today.

The Bal Shree winners were picked from among 9-to-16-year-olds in four categories of creativity.

They included five in Creative Performance and six in Creative Arts and six in Special Creative Scientific Innovation and five in Special Creative Writing.

The selection in the last two categories were made from among victims of cerebral palsy and severe spinal muscular dystrophy respectively.

The Bal Shree Award is intended to encourage ''overall development'' of children's personality by nurturing their creativity. The honorees are identified by National Bal Bhavan.

The winners in Creative Performance: Manjari Mukherjee of Kolkata, Barkha Prashant Naik, Goa, Arza Varshini, Hyderabad, Bhavya Pandit, Mumbai and Ridhi N Gupte, Vadodara.

For Creative Arts: Protijayi Chatterjee, Howrah, Neeraj A Chokshi, Vadodara, Sahil Aggarwal, Chandigarh, A Velmurugan, Puducherry, K Manogana, Hyderabad and Dinesh, Pudukottai.

Creative Scientific Innovation: Jigisha Arun Marwale, Aurangabad, P Sharmila Yadav, Puducherry, Mansi Gokhale, Vododara, D Padamanaban, Puducherry, Ishan Wadhwa, Delhi, Neha Mehrotra, Allahabad.

Creative Writing: Avipsha Das, Pudukottai, Siddhartha Chandra Sekaran, Chennai, Tanya Anne Pinto, Goa, Mohan Lal Delu, Silvassa, Shivali Unishree, Rihand Nagar.

The Bal Shree Honour consists of a plaque, a citation, a Vikas Patra cash award and a set of books of children's interest.

Children who qualify for zonal and national level also get participation certificates in recognition of their creative ability.

Cash incentives have been announced by the government for children who make it to the national level of Bal Shree selection process.

Children who are 9 to 14 years old are given a one time incentive of Rs 5000 by the Bhavan.

Children between 14 to 16 years receive Chacha Nehru Scholarship for Artistic and Innovative Excellence from the National Council of Educational Research&Training.

The Re 500 monthly scholarship is given to children studying in classes IX onward till they complete class XII.

UNI