Seven-year-old Aadhyaa Aravind Shankar from Malleswaram, Bengaluru, won the Peace Image of the Year award in the children category of the Global Peace Photo Award in September. The picture she clicked from her mother's camera took her to the Austrian Parliament, where she received a diploma, a medal and a cheque of 1,000 euros.
Studying in Class 2 at Vidyaniketan in Hebbal, Aadhyaa is the first Indian to have won this award, reported The Times of India. Her black-and-white photograph, themed 'Lap of Peace', capturing her mother resting in her grandmother's lap, is what won her the award.
"She looked so peaceful on her mother's lap. I couldn't believe my photo was selected," she was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
Her parents said that Aadhya has been into photography since she was only four years old. She would capture whatever seemed intriguing to her with her mother's phone camera, which, later, her father used to send to several photography competitions.
On 21 September, Aadhyaa and her mother travelled to Vienna for the award ceremony. UNESCO congratulated Aadhyaa on social media and appreciated her achievement.
In partnership with UNESCO and the Austrian Parliament, the prize is awarded to photographs that can display human efforts towards a peaceful world.
(With inputs from The Times of India.)
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