Two awards from a president
The documented honours are national and dated. In 2012 he received the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement. In 2013 came the Best Creative Child with Disabilities award. Both, the article states, were conferred by President Pranab Mukherjee.
State awards of this kind are conferred rather than claimed, which makes them the firmest part of the record. They place him, twice, among the children the Indian government chose to recognise in consecutive years.
How he works
The mechanics are described plainly in the report. He holds a pen in his mouth to write. He uses his chin on a laptop. A computerised voice system supports his communication. He uses a wheelchair, and he had undergone more than twenty operations since his birth in 1999.
The examination detail is the one that carries the most weight. He appeared for the Class 10 board papers, the report says, without a scribe and without the additional time that candidates in his position may be granted. The results were still awaited when the article was published.
What his family did
His mother, Sujata Dey, left a government job to care for him full time. His father, Samiran Dey, works in real estate. By 2017 the family had moved to Kota, the coaching city in Rajasthan where Indian students prepare for the engineering entrance examinations, so that Tuhin could work towards a place at an Indian Institute of Technology.
"He wants to make a big name for himself in science," his mother told India.com. "Tuhin is our world. Nothing is bigger for us than him." Tuhin's own statement was about the physicist the headline compared him to: "I want to get into IIT and become like him one day."
The comparison, and the condition
The Stephen Hawking framing came from the coverage, not from Tuhin, and it is a headline device rather than a medical or scientific equivalence. It is repeated here only because it is the phrase under which the story circulated.
The article is not consistent about his diagnosis. It refers both to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the motor neurone disease, and to arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a congenital condition that limits joint movement, and it states that he was assessed as ninety percent disabled. Those are two different conditions, and this page reports the inconsistency rather than choosing between them. Nothing beyond what the family and the outlet stated publicly is added.
What is documented — and what is not
Firm: the two national awards and the president who conferred them, the method of writing and working, the twenty-plus operations, the Class 10 papers sat unaided, the family's move to Kota and the parents' names and occupations.
Not documented: his board results, whether he sat or passed an IIT entrance examination, where he studied afterwards, and anything at all in the years since May 2017. The ambition on the record is an ambition stated at seventeen. It is not a claim about what happened next, and no source in this record supplies one.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement (2012) and Best Creative Child with Disabilities (2013), from President Pranab Mukherjee
- Writes with a pen held in his mouth and uses a laptop with his chin; more than twenty operations since 1999
- Sat the Class 10 board examinations without a scribe or additional time (India.com, 6 May 2017)
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- The article names two different conditions, ALS and arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, without reconciling them
- His board results were not published in this record
- No record of an IIT entrance result, a college place or anything since May 2017
Questions people ask about Tuhin Dey
Who is Tuhin Dey?
A student from West Midnapore, West Bengal, profiled in 2017 for sitting his Class 10 board examinations unaided and for two national child awards.
What awards has he won?
The National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2012 and the Best Creative Child with Disabilities award in 2013, both from President Pranab Mukherjee.
How does he write?
With a pen held in his mouth, and he operates a laptop with his chin, using a computerised voice system to communicate.
Why is he called India's Stephen Hawking?
It is a description used by the press. It comes from the coverage rather than from Tuhin, and it is not a medical or scientific equivalence.
What condition does he have?
The article names two: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. It also states that he was assessed as ninety percent disabled. The inconsistency is in the source.
Did he get into an IIT?
No source in this record says. In 2017 the family had moved to Kota so he could prepare for the entrance examination; nothing after that has been published here.
Who are his parents?
His mother is Sujata Dey, who left a government job to care for him full time, and his father is Samiran Dey, who works in real estate.
Where is Tuhin Dey now?
No source states this. The published record stops in May 2017.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Tuhin’s story?
How does Tuhin Dey write?
Who conferred his two national awards?
Which career did he say he was aiming for in 2017?
Sources
- Tuhin Dey is India's Stephen Hawking? 17-year-old wheelchair bound genius aims to become a cosmologist — India.com, 2017-05-06
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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