Woman Mao-cadre Sulochana turns social worker:Empowers women in Odisha’s Sambalpur

Sambalpur, June 19: Woman Mao cadre Sulochana Mirdha has turned into a social worker after her come back to the mainstream. She is now working on the women empowerment with her own effort being a social tool for the rural girls and women in Sambalpur with her free stitching and mending training. Sulohana Mirdha who hails from  Jalaguda village under the Riamal block in the Deogarh district joined the red- militants in the year 2004 after she came in contact with the notorious Mao cadre, Girish Mahto. At first Sulochana worked as a local militia who was later awarded the post  of the head Cadrer of the Sambalpur-Deogarh-Sundargarh Mao division. Since then, Sulochana became Mao leader Gita and trained the new militants the techniques of gunfire, hideouts and gorilla war. Meanwhile, Sulochana alias Gita tied his nuptial knot with Ganesh of Tamparsingha village under the Jujumara block in the Sambalpur district who was also an active mao cadre of the Odisha-Andhra red corridor. Ganesh befriended Gita in the mao den in the Nakitideula forest while they were working together. Meanwhile, Gita and Ganesh were caught red-handed with arms and ammunitions during a combing operation of the Sambalpur police following which the duo were put behind the bars. Meanwhile, Sulochana @ Gita made up her mind to return to the mainstream. She was keen to leave the way of violence and begin a new dawn for her and the downtrodden woman community in the hilly areas of Sambalpur and Deogarh. To shape her mission into reality she sincerely learnt stitching and mending  in the jail and decided to keep it on after her release, for the sake of others. On the gracious reports of the jail authorities and the proposal of the district police, Gita was released from the jail in 2016.Since then, she is not only living for her, rather she is striving for other women like her boosting them socially and economically. She is organising rural girls and women to train them as professional tailors, boutique maker and apparel mender on her own effort. Expressing her happiness over her transit from a violent mao-cadre to a housewife and to a social outfit, Gita said that she wants a joyful tomorrow with his spouse and children. At  the same time, she likes to see better days and self-reliance among the women of the hill tribes who strive hard to earn two square meals a day. However, she is discontented on her husnband’s re-arrest by the police despite he is away from violence and keen to come on her way.