As we just celebrated the Utkal Divas, it would be interesting to note that Odisha became the first State to be carved out on linguistic basis in 1936 before the States were reorganised on linguistic basis in 1956. In January 1895, HG Cook, the Commissioner of Odisha, was the first official to back the demand for amalgamation of the Odia-speaking track. In 1912, the demand got Lord Curzon’s support in the House of Lords, where he declared that Odias have been sacrificed without compensation as they “are a non-agitating people”.
The British stayed shy of unifying all Odia-speaking people in a single administration unit. This affected their socioeconomic growth. It is to the credit of a sustained campaign by Odia intellectuals, entrepreneurs and social reformers like Gopabandhu Das and Madhusudan Das that led to formation of Odisha as a separate province on April 1, 1936, under the recommendation of the Simon Commission.
It’s worthwhile to recall the contribution of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das for creation of Odisha as a State. He pleaded for free education in 1912, inspired by Japan's Code of Education 1872. Much before Amartya Sen wrote about the linkage between democracy and famine, Gopabandhu exposed the real reasons for famine in his iconic paper, the Samaj. He had in Utkalgaurav Madhusudan Das a peerless fellow traveller, who set up the Utkal Sammilani in 1903 which underlined the importance of secularism as the bedrock of his movement. He also set the benchmark for honesty in the manipulative world of the corporates.
Utkal Diwas is not only about celebrating the rich heritage of Odia language but also of the importance of free education for fostering social inclusion, a free Press to voice responsible dissent, business which can operate without venality and secularism that cannot be purloined by jingoists and bigots. It took the irony of a vast tragedy in the 19th Century for modern Odisha to evolve in to a progressive State in the 21st century. Three things stand out in Odisha today; its thrust on women empowerment through Mission Shakti (2001), showing the pathway for cultivating millets as a mission for improving the economic standard of the impoverished and making Bhubaneswar the Oxford of the East, the hub for quality and inclusive education.
Odisha today has 6 lakh women Self Help Groups, with 70 lakh members for strengthening their livelihoods, ensuring market linkages to SHG products, creating awareness among women on social entitlements and linking women with formal financial inclusion. This has sown the seeds of true financial inclusion.
The Odisha Market Mission which started in 2017 seeks to increase millet productions through improved agronomic practices, using organic input and strengthening farmer cooperatives. From 29 blocks and 7 districts cultivating over 5,182 hectares in 2017, it now encompasses 76 blocks and 14 districts with 1 lakh farmers cultivating 50,000 hectares. The yield has doubled. The FM in her Budget speech has declared the 2023 as “the year of millets” and assured of all support to farmers who live in arid zones in acute impoverishment. It was Gokhale who had said once: “What Bengal tries today, the rest of India taken tomorrow”. Odisha seems to have shown the way through its successful implementation of Millet Mission for the millions!
In education, educational entrepreneurs like Prof Achuta Samanta have combined inclusive quality education for beleaguered tribal children(KISS) with quality technical, legal and management education for students for all over the country. KISS, which houses 30,000 children by handholding them from early childhood till they are gainfully employed has become a unique model for emulation for children in the margins of the society in the entire world. Gone are the 1930s when the students of Odisha were going to States of Bihar and Kolkotta for higher studies or in the 60s to Allahabad or Delhi for higher studies. Bhubaneswar has become the epicenter of quality education, attracting the best of students from East, North, North East and from 65 countries. While the lampposts of knowledge outside India like Oxford and Harvard have remained stagnant, education outlets like KISS and KIIT are truly promoting inclusive quality education and will promote the future of our students. Historian Stanley Wolpert writes: “Modern higher education is the swiftest elevator to modern Indian Power”. Odisha seems to be paving the way.
EM Foster had given two cheers to democracy. The above achievements of Odisha mask its extremely dismal record in terms of stunting amongst children and anemia among adolescence girls and mother. As per NFHS survey V (20-20), the percentage of children who are stunted is 29% and girls and women suffering from anemia is 47.6%. Besides as per the report released by the Niti Ayog, Odisha is still miles away from the two SDG targets of zero poverty and no hunger with 32.5% below poverty line and 39.5% multidimensional challenged in terms of access to quality healthcare, reasonable education and minimal movable and immovable assets. The millet ladoos are expected to be a good food supplement to children studying in Angalwadis. However, the Odisha Government on its foundation day must give greater weightage how to mitigate extreme hunger and malnutrition amongst children and expectant mothers, provide assured healthcare at reasonable costs to all its citizens and access to better primary education to children which is the foundation to real empowerment and employment at a later stage. Jeffry Sachs in his recent book Ages of Globalization has said that the 'future models of development would not be Government led but society led’, where corporates, NGOs and Governments are collaborators. Odisha has adopted the model for its millet mission. Two cheers to Odisha’s odyssey so far in its trysts towards “millets to the millions”, women empowerment and private sector contribution for upliftment of tribal school education.
