By Priya Ranjan Sahu
Among all Lok Sabha candidates from all parties in the upcoming general elections in Odisha, the most interesting one is Pramila Bisoi, who has been handpicked by chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik from Aska.
The 70-year-old self-help group leader comes across as a typical affectionate ‘Berhampuria Mausi’ (aunt from Berhampur). She has studied up to Class 2 and hails from a poorer background. Her family includes husband Banchhanidi Bisoi, a retired fourth-class irrigation department employee, two sons, two daughters and 17 grandchildren. Her elder son sells tea for a living, while the younger son owns a motorcycle garage.
But at the same time, Bisoi is a self-help group leader of repute. She heads a cluster of 3,500 SHGs in Ganjam district.
But Bisoi never expected that Patnaik would choose her to contest for Aska Lok Sabha seat. It is one of the prestigious Lok Sabha constituency as one of its assembly segment, Hinjili, is represented by Patnaik himself.
When she got a call from Naveen Nivas, Patnaik’s residence in Bhubaneswar, now the nerve centre of all political activities, she thought that she would be given some award for social work. “When the chief minister asked me to contest for Lok Sabha, I was floored,” she says.
Soon after Patnaik announced Bisoi’s name for Aska, most lauded the decision. However, many also raised questions about her lack of education. She takes the ridicule about her education with a pinch of salt. “So what if I am not educated formally. I can read and write, and speak at public meetings. I have learnt and am still learning from my experiences,” says Bisoi, who’s known in the area for writing poems on social issues.
And indeed her strength and confidence come from her vast experience spanning half a century. As her family was poor, she started cultivation in an acre of land in Chermaria village of Ganjam district. But soon social issues of the area caught up her attention.
When she first time she intervened socially, it was to protect a denuded hill near Chermaria along with other women of the village. Due to their efforts, the hill got back its forest and became famous as a habitat for peacocks and other animals.
In 2001, she led the village women to found the Satasankha Swayam Sebika Sangha, an SHG to address livelihood issues of women. The efforts of the women in the field of cottage industry and savings led to Bisoi forming another 100 women SHGs in Aska district in the next few years.
Bisoi says that now she is not alone and the area has produced many other women leaders. She gives its credit to Mission Shakti, a government programme launched by Patnaik for women, as it created the right kind of atmosphere to ensure women became self-sufficient and self-reliant. “Now after Patnaik reserved 50 per cent seats in panchayati raj institutions, many women have been elected to panchayats and blocks,” she says.
Bisoi is popularly known as ‘Pari Ma’ among people in the area, who say that besides forest protection, she has been instrumental in planting of over two lakh trees. She says creating forest has been a passion for her. She believes that more forest leads to better rainfall and in the process better crops for the farmers.
What are her plans for Aska if she becomes the MP? Bisoi says she will work towards creating more cottages and handicraft industries focused on making toys, dry edibles and other things Ganjam is known for. “It will keep more and more women engaged in productive works along with men,” she says.
When a supposedly unlettered woman is so clear in her vision and has done so much for society, why do we need so called educated people, who have been elected earlier and done nothing? At least, Bisoi is much more preferable to elites like Hema Malini and Jaya Prada, who are infamous for blink-and-miss appearances in the areas that they represent in Lok Sabha.
Should all political parties not choose candidates like Bisoi ?
