A friend, philosopher and guide, Niroja Laxmi Mohapatra is a motherly figure for the children of jail inmates in Odisha, who are struggling to carve a place for themselves in life.
Her concerted efforts through the years have yielded fruit: two of them have become engineers and some others are pursuing higher education and technical courses.
Hostel For Children of Convicts
Mohapatra is the supervisor of the Madhur Mayee Adarsha Siksha Niketan, a hostel for convicts’ children, located next to the special jail in Bhubaneswar.
Her hostel, which began with two children in 2003, houses over 60 students of different age groups today.
The hostel opened with two children in November 2003 when the Odisha government was implementing a reform programme in prisons across the state. We started the hostel to help educate and provide a better life to the inmates’ children.Niroja Laxmi Mohapatra
How It All Started
The hostel is managed by an NGO, Odisha Patita Udhar Samiti, and depends on public funding.
She said the NGO had conducted a survey to identify the children of jail inmates a few years ago and brought 23 children to the facility.
After deciding to set up the hostel for such children, we discussed it with the then IG-Prisons Bidya Bhushan Mohanty and the state government. The state Women and Child Development department accepted the idea and provided an initial investment to run the hostel.
She said it was the first ever hostel for the children of prisoners in India.
Giving Every Child a Chance
The state government has plans to take over the hostel for better management and ensure the children’s security, she said.
This hostel facilitates children who want to make a positive mark in life. And Mohapatra is sparing no effort to help them live their dream. The first step is education. With the support of the hostel and Mohapatra’s earnest efforts, several youngsters have secured admission in various schools and colleges.
Manas Ranjan Sahoo and his friend Bighnaraj Bagh are now pursuing engineering degrees from KIIT University while several others have got admission in plus-three and ITIs.
This year, six children appeared in the 10th Board examination and all of them cleared the hurdle. Sujata Sahu, who was studying at the Capital High School, secured over 80 percent marks. I facilitated her plus-two admission in BJB Junior College, one of the state’s prestigious colleges.
She had brought Sujata from Nayagarh jail, where her parents are imprisoned on murder charges.
Besides curriculum activities, the children are also learning dance and other art works.
Odisha’s First College for Students with Hearing Disabilities
However, Mohaptra’s role is not limited to nurturing these children alone. This woman with a golden heart, who hails from Tirtol in Jagatsinghpur district, has also set up the state’s first college for the hearing-impaired in 2007.
When I mulled the idea of setting up a college for the hearing-impaired, many advised me to drop the plan as it would be difficult to run a college without any financial support by the government. I formed a welfare trust and founded the Satyabhama Devi College.
The college offers higher education in the plus-II Arts stream to visually challenged students.
Mohapatra, who completed her graduation in 1992, also successfully pursued a diploma course to teach the blind. She then completed her Master’s degree from the Utkal University before working as a teacher in several schools.
(Published in arrangement with IANS.)
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