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:
Project Veergatha was established in 2021 under the Gallantry Awards Portal (GAP) in order to provide school children a platform to work on projects and activities inspired by gallantry award winners. To further advance this admirable goal, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE) launched Project Veer Gatha 3.0 in the current year 2023-24.
With the introduction of Veer Gatha 3.0 in July 2023, the initiative reached new heights as compared to its earlier editions, attracting an unprecedented participation of 1,36,87,581 students from 2,42,834 schools across 766 districts in 36 states and UTs. The remarkable achievement of the Veer Gatha 3.0 is exemplified by the impressive strength of 65 girl students among the ’Super-100’. Odisha gave the highest number of female winners with eight girl students, closely followed by Bihar with seven, while Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern region of Manipur had two and five noteworthy girl student winners respectively.
Veer Gatha 3.0 introduces a significant improvement by extending the list of winners from the previous editions' Super 25 to now include Super 100.State and district-level awards additionally recognize students' achievements across various levels. The success of Veer Gatha 3.0 is evident not just in its impressive participation figures, but also in its capacity to overcome linguistic, cultural, gender, and institutional constraints, extending its reach to even remote areas.
Project Veergatha 3.0 commenced with schools conducting interdisciplinary and art-integrated activities and submission of top entries to the MyGov portal. The submission by the students was allowed to be made in any of the 22 Scheduled languages and English. The school-level activities for Veer Gatha 3.0 were concluded on September 30, 2023. The students were involved in activities in the form of Poem / Paragraph / Essay / Painting / Drawing / Story / Video. The suggested topics for this years creative entries included Gallantry Awards Winners, Rani Lakshmi Bai, 1857 Mutiny and Role of Tribal Uprising in Freedom Struggle. The school students nation-wide also got an opportunity to interact with gallantry awardees during various online and offline interactive sessions organised by MoD.
Project Veer Gatha 3.0 is evaluated and awarded at three levels: District level, State/UT Level, and National level. After a series of evaluations at the State and District levels, a total of 3891 entries were submitted for National level evaluation. The National Evaluation Committee selected the 100 best entries (25 entries from each category) from those approved by the State Nodal Officers of all States/UTs. The four categories were: Class 3rd to 5th, Class 6th to 8th, Class 9th to 10th, and Class 11th to 12th.
Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh along with Hon’ble Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan felicitated ’Super-100’ winners of Project Veer Gatha 3.0 in an event organised in New Delhi on January 25, 2024. Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Defence Secretary Shri Giridhar Aramane and other senior officials of Ministry of Defence & Ministry of Education were present on the occasion. The event also witnessed Param Vir Chakra awardee Subedar Major (Honorary Captain) Yogendra Singh Yadav (Retd) narrating his real-life story of the Kargil war where he overcame all odds and played a crucial role in India’s historic victory.
Apart from the 100 winners felicitated at the national level, there are rewards for top four winners (one from each category) at the district level, and for top eight winners (two from each category) at the State/UT level, irrespective of the board.
It is evident that Veer Gatha has not only celebrated India’s heroic past but has also sown the seeds for a more patriotic and socially aware future generation.
