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Odisha has not only given India its second women President Droupadi Murmu, it also has a long legacy of nurturing several female trailblazers who steer businesses, art and whole movements with the same acumen and ambition that our Head of the State steers the country.
To honour and celebrate these formidable female forces who are the gold standard in their chosen fields, The New Indian Express brings the Devi Awards 2024 to Bhubaneswar for the second time. The media conglomerate believes in women and their power to move mountains hence, we hail their contributions through this annual gesture of acknowledgement and appreciation.
Lipsa Hembram is a textile and fashion designer who graduated from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Hyderabad. Her expertise in indigenous handloom fabrics from Odisha has been showcased in prestigious platforms such as the Lakmé Fashion Week, the Make in Odisha Conclave and more. Lipsa promotes Odisha’s rich tribal textiles through her clothing brand Galang Gabaan.
She actively talks about her indigenous heritage, culture and costumes. A two-time TEDx speaker, she has revived the traditional Santal sarees into contemporary versions and helped the community integrate with mainstream society through fashion. Lipsa organises workshops and delivers lectures for aspiring design graduates at various institutions. She takes her role as a design mentor seriously and likes engaging in and interacting with the new generation of designers and creators.
It was a big challenge for Jayanti Buruda to work as a journalist in Malkangiri. Well-wishers discouraged her saying that the district wasn't safe for a woman journalist. Their urban mindset surprised her while it was less educated and poverty-stricken primitive individuals who encouraged her.
At times she thought of giving up the media job to serve primitive and marginalised people. But instead, she chose to serve her people, which is how she bagged the NWMI Fellowship for Women Journalists. Buruda co-founded an open library for tribal students. She also founded the Bada Didi Union and Pad Bank.
After completing her Master’s degree in Rural Development from Gandhigram Rural Institute in Tamil Nadu, Sabamatee worked with Oxfam briefly. At the age of 25, she left the job, decided not to marry and came back to live and work voluntarily in Sambhav in 1993 to regenerate the wasted land ecologically and work with people and nature. She is one of the co-founders of Sambhav, an organisation born in 1989 and dedicated to environment and gender issues.
It was visualised by her father, the noted environmentalist Late Prof Radhamohan (Padma Shri awardee, 2020) who was deeply disturbed by the environmental degeneration and the deterioration of women’s situation in the society and wanted to show practical examples to revert the process. Its campus is spread over 90 acres of land in Odgaon Block of Nayagarh district.
She, along with her small team, successfully experimented, demonstrated and shared the knowledge widely about how a barren and abandoned land can be regenerated ecologically, most precious resources like soil, water, biodiversity can be conserved, indigenous varieties can be productive organically and women and common people can be catalysts of this change. Once completely barren, the place now houses hundreds of plant varieties along with rich animal diversity besides encouraging people to ‘re-green’ their land too.
Dr Jyotirmayee Mohanty is one of India's leading scientists in supramolecular chemistry. She has been instrumental in developing methods for sustained green hydrogen production, novel hybrid material as a generator bed for the selective separation of 99mTc radiotracer and water-based dye laser, which is practically being used in various laboratories of BARC.
She has also contributed towards the biological applications of supramolecular assemblies such as anti-bacterial agents with enhanced efficacy, anti-tumour and anti-fibrillar agents for cancer treatment as well as therapeutics for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, respectively. As a Professor of Chemical Sciences, Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), she has supervised PhD and post graduate students and has collaborated with various national and international research groups. She has about 120 publications in high-impact international journals.
From a dancer who dared to break the tradition of only men performing the Chhau dance, Subhasree Mukherjee has become a fierce advocate of the rights and opportunities of folk and tribal artists in the districts of Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Puri, Khordha, and Koraput. Committed to the overall development of the socio-ethnic-cultural practices in Odisha, she works for the market linkage of rural craftsmen and artisans from Mayurbhanj, bridging gaps to help destitute artists leverage government-supported schemes. Born into a Bengali family in Baripada, Subhashree started learning Odissi at the age of eight. In her personal life, she is mother to a special child with autism spectrum disorder. She balances her life between the needs of her son and her ageing parents. Life, for her, is a beautiful struggle and she is trying her best to win it.
A disciple of Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, Guru Aruna Mohanty, Guru Pabitra Kumar Pradhan and Guru Krushnachandra Sahoo, Madhulita Mohapatra is admired and applauded by connoisseurs and critics alike, for her profound artistry and her innate abhinaya quality. Madhulita has performed at several prestigious events across the country like the Konark Festival, the Taj Mahotsav, the Mukteshwar Festival, the Dhauli Mahotsav, and the Bengaluru International Arts Festival among others.
She is devoted to the promotion and popularisation of Odissi in South India through her institution, Nrityantar, by performing, teaching and nurturing the finest talents. Her inventive choreographic skills and her adeptness in keeping her audiences engaged with brilliant use of movement and space as well as interesting themes make Nrityantar Dance Ensemble one of the most sought-after classical dance troupes.
In 2015, Amrita Sabat along with her sister, Dr. Anita Sabat, co-founded Sabat Exports Private Limited and the brand Utkalamrita to promote the handicrafts and handlooms of Odisha worldwide. They have self-funded their participation in several international exhibitions in Singapore, China, Australia, and Malaysia as well as domestic Odisha handloom exhibitions in Goa, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Coimbatore.
Their main focus is not just Odisha’s beautiful handwoven sarees (some are a revival of lost Odisha weaves) but also innovative garments and accessories made from Odisha ikat fabric. End-to-end eco-friendly techniques are part of their vision of sustainable fashion.
Representing community interests and the Geographical Indications (GI) of Odisha, Dr. Anita facilitates Odisha GI registrations and ensures the correct representation of traditional, local, and GI products. She protects, preserves, and promotes the state's interest. Not for nothing is she known as the Rasagola Lady. She started the #RasagolaDibasa on social media in 2015.
She first proposed and initiated the celebration of Rasagola Day on Niladri Bije, the last day of the Rathayatra, thereby sparking the Rasagola Debate. An independent researcher, writer, social worker and cultural advocate, it was at her prompting that the Sambalpuri Bandha Saree was awarded the National Handloom Award in 2024.
Peenakee Singh Rajput is a film director, screenwriter and editor. She studied filmmaking at the Bijupattanaik Film and Television Institute of Odisha and specialised in film editing. Passionate about cinema since childhood, she started her career as a child artist and has done regional theatre and television. She realised that she could not be anywhere but behind the camera in the year 2014, when she started work as a screenwriter in Kolkata. She owns PS Motion Pictures, a production company based in Cuttack, Odisha. She shifted to Odisha i 2017. Since then, she has directed several shorts and feature films.
A spirited crusader for gender justice, Manasi Pradhan is a globally-renowned women’s rights activist and author. Manasi is frequently featured among the world’s top activists and authors by prestigious international publications and organizations. In 2016, the New York based Bustle magazine named her among 20 most inspiring feminists authors and activists along with Nobel Prize winners Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchu, Malala Yousafzai, Betty Friedan, Naomi Klein, Angela Davis, Kate Millett and Gloria Steinem. In 2017, the Los Angeles based Walker Media Inc.
named her among 12 most powerful feminist change makers across the globe. In 2018, she was invited by the prestigious Oxford Union, University of Oxford, to address the union. Manasi is also an acclaimed author and poet. Her fourth book Urmi-O-Uchchwas has been translated into eight major languages. The first woman matriculate of her village and subsequently the first woman law graduate of her region, her inspiring life story has been adapted as a documentary in several countries.
Presently, Founder and Principal of Mother’s Public School, Unit-1, Bhubaneswar, Poly Patnaik is also the Chairman of Mother’s Groups of Institution. She comes with over 26 years of administrative experience as Principal. It was Patnaik's childhood dream to build a school catering to the needs of working mothers. An experienced educator, Patnaik believes in the zeal to work for society and make students confident and creative. She maintains a positive learning atmosphere in the class that motivates children to excel and nurtures creative learning that goes beyond the curriculum.
Dr Mami Parija is a reputed anaesthesiologist, who has earned a name in Odisha as a pain and palliative care expert. Pain, suffering and the distress of terminally ill cancer patients moved her and she joined hands with a few of her colleagues to form an organisation that could offer holistic services. The organisation took its birth five years ago and she was nominated as the founder president of a non-profit organisation known as the Amrit Dhara Palliative Care Trust.Since then, Dr Parija has been working hard to reach as many advanced inoperable cancer patients as possible to offer medication, counselling, psychological and spiritual support.
Shyamamani Devi is considered the doyenne of Odissi classical music for a reason. A disciple of Gurus Singhari Shyamsundar Kar and Balakrushna Dash, the veteran singer started as a child artiste with the All India Radio at the age of 12 in 1950. Although Shyamamani Devi had to face strong opposition from society for pursuing music, it didn't deter her. Trained in both Odissi and Hindustani classical music, she chose to make a career in Odissi music. She received a DLitt from the Utkal University of Culture in 2012 and the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi award for the year 1991-92. Among the several awards that have been bestowed upon her, the most prestigious is the Padma Shri that she won in 2022.
Nabarangpur's Pravati Patro has been instrumental in reviving the lacquer craft that was on the verge of extinction and is today, helping many women of the district make a living from it. A self-taught artist, she began practising the craft at the age of 15 and went on to win several awards for reviving and promoting it. People of the district have a tradition of gifting lacquered boxes to their daughters during weddings. Growing up, Pravati realised the craft of making these boxes was limited to only a few families in Nabarangpur district. She began training women in the craft and today, many of them are generating a regular source of income from it. Pravati operates the Maa Mangala Lac Artisans' Association and three SHGs with 45 women members that teach the craft.
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