The Thinkers’ Club in its 80th webinar arranged a memorial discussion on the first woman freedom fighter of Odisha, Sarala Devi. Secretary of the State Assembly Dasarathi Satapathy joined the meet as the chief guest and spoke about the personal life of Sarala and the hurdles she faced as the first woman freedom fighter of the State.

The meeting was presided over by senior advocate and Sarala Bhagirathi Mohapatra Trust president Niranjan Panda. Panda spoke about the life and achievements of Sarala. He also spoke about the meeting of Gandhi in the bed of river Kathajodi which was arranged with the help of Sarala since the Britishers had promulgated Sec 144 over the city.

Professor Dr Bijay Laxmi Das of the Ravenshaw University was the chief speaker.  Dr Das discussed Sarala’s role in the upliftment of women in the society. According to her, Sarala had many things to her credit as a pioneer. She joined the Non-cooperation movement of Gandhiji in 1921. She is the first woman from Odisha to join the Congress. On April 1,1936, when Odisha became the first State formed on the basis of language, she was elected to the Legislative Assembly. She was the first woman MLA of the State. She was in charge of the Speaker of the Assembly; she was elected as a Director of the Cuttack Cooperative Bank. (First woman director of the bank) She was the Secretary of “The Utkal Sahitya Samaj” Cuttack as well, said Das.

Sarala Devi Smruti Sansada secretary Laxmi Prakash Mohapatra was the observer of the meet. Thinkers Club president and former Additional Director, Information and Public Relations Department, Government of Odisha, Barada Prasanna Das was the coordinator of the meet.

Among others, Dr Rajat Satapathy, Natyacharjya Chitaranjan Satapathy, Swati Das from Australia, Principal Dr Bairagi Charan Pattanaik, Professor Umasankar Misra, Professor Dr Pushpanjali Parida, Nimai Swain, Dr Mira Beura, Ramesh Sahoo, Advocate Asit Jena, Chief Engineer Sudhakar Patri, Suvasmita Devi and Biswajit Pani joined.