Jalgaon girl gets national bravery award for saving mother from dying of electrocution

Now a student of class I in Jalgaon’s Podar International School, Shivangi was in Senior KG when she saved her mother and younger sister Ishanvi from being electrocuted.

It was January 5, 2021, when Shivangi’s mother Gulbakshi Kale, a retired navy official herself, was heating water for a bath in a steel bucket using an iron rod electric heater. Soon, Gulbakshi realised she was getting electrocuted.

“I could see my younger daughter running towards me but I could not even ask her to stop because I could not speak. Just then, Shivangi held Ishanvi by her hand and pulled her back. I saw her taking charge of the situation when she instructed her sister to not go near me. I saw her eyes tracing my hand to the switchboard, which was at around 5feet height. She brought a stool to stand on and switched off the appliance. The effect of electrocution wore off and I stopped shaking physically. But I was in a state of shock and I sat speechless on the sofa. Shivangi patted me on my back and asked me if I was okay.,” said Gulbakshi, adding how she picked up the bucket in a hurry and her daughter ended up saving her.

According to the Kale couple, everything happened in a matter of seconds and so Gulbakshi did not suffer any major injuries.

“When we asked her how she knew what needed to be done, she said they were told at home and in the school to be careful around electricity and appliances connected to it,” said Prasad Kale, her father and Jalgaon plant head of a manufacturing giant.

Kale then applied for the award online. “Around 600 applications were received out of which 29 were selected and Shivangi is one of them,” he said with pride.