Risked her life to save the lives of others

Losing four of her fingers while saving the lives of four kids, Prachi Sen has no regrets that she only has a thumb in her left hand. Though at first she was afraid that her friends will ignore her but she has become a pride for her entire community.

"Many a times I've heard people in the market addressing me as 'Prachi's father' and that is a proud moment for me," said Santosh Sen, Prachi's father.

Acknowledging her bravery and courage, Prachi has been awarded with National Bravery Award in 2008. The incident happened on 2nd July, 2007 when Prachi's family shifted to Sanawad town (MP) just a week before. It was raining when Prachi's elder sister Richa, her younger brother Manas, her friend Shefali and Shefali's brother Anay, all were playing on terrace. Everybody else except Prachi was bare foot and was playing in the water collected on the terrace. "I was not feeling well that day and was standing at a distance from them. While playing Anay started goofing around with an iron rod which then touched a high tension wire near our terrace," told Prachi.

Within seconds Anay, Manav and Shefali got electrocuted while trying to save each other. "When I saw them like that, I ran towards them immediately and figured out that iron rod was the reason behind this accident. Without any further delay I pushed that rod from my left hand and my friends from my right and we all fell down," told Prachi.

Though all the four children recovered soon after that incident, Prachi's fingers were badly burnt. Doctors removed her four fingers from her left hand. The cost of whole operation and treatment was around Rs. Two lakh. "The news of Prachi's brave act got published in newspapers and so we received the financial help of Rs. 1.80 lakh from Chief Minister's fund. At the time of the incident, Prachi was in 5th standard but due to her treatment process she couldn't study for a year and now she is in 10th standard.

"Prachi's treatment cost me around Rs. 3 Lakh but I didn't her money received under the Geeta Chopra Bravey Award," said Santosh Sen. Till now Prachi has received Ghanshyam Biyani award, Maharana Pratap Shaurya Award, Sony TV's CID Bravery award.

The amount received from all the awards has been fixed deposited in Prachi's name by her father so that she can use it in future. On being questioned what does she wants to become in future, pat comes the reply from Prachi, "I want to become an IAS officer and want to serve the country."