After Death
For her bravery the Government of India posthumously awarded her the Ashoka Chakra (India's highest decoration for gallantry away from the battlefield, or not in the face of the enemy), being its youngest recipient. In 2004 the Indian Postal Service released a stamp commemorating her.
With the money from the insurance settlement and an equal contribution from Pan Am, Neerja's parents set up the 'Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust'. The trust presents two awards every year, one for a flight crew member, worldwide, who acts beyond the call of duty and another to an Indian woman who, when faced with social injustice like dowry, desertion etc. overcomes it with guts and grit AND then helps other women in similar social distress. The award includes a sum of INR 1,50,000, a trophy and a citation.
Neerja's brother Aneesh Bhanot went to Washington DC, in 2005 to receive the 'Justice for Crimes Award' awarded posthumously to Neerja as part of the 'Annual Crime Rights Week', at a ceremony held at the United States Attorney's office for the District of Columbia. In 2006, she and the other Pan Am Flight 73 flight attendants and Pan Am's flight director for Pakistan were awarded the Special Courage award by the US Department of Justice.
A square called Neerja Bhanot Chowk is named after her in Mumbai's Ghatkopar (East) suburb by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation.
The civil aviation ministry of India conferred an honor on Neerja Bhanot posthumously on February 18, 2010 in New Delhi on the occasion of the launch of the celebrations of the centenary of Indian Aviation.
Read more about this topic: Neerja Bhanot
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“It is a strange, strange fate, and now, as I stand face to face with death I feel just as if they were going to kill a boy. For I feel like a boy—and my hands so free from blood and my heart always so compassionate and pitiful that I cannot comprehend how anyone wants to hang me.”
—Roger Casement (1864–1916)
“To die, to sleep—
No more, and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
Must give us pause.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)