PadmashreeTulsi

Padmashree Tulsi Munda pioneered what is today in Orissa a phenomenon - that is the growing strength of women. Her mission to spread literacy among tribal children has made Tulsi a savior of the unprivileged. Though she could not attend school, she now plays a role of a torch bearer of literacy and education among tribals. Tulsi was born in a poor family of Kaisiri, a remote village of Keounjhar in the year 1947. As her father Charan Munda passed away, poor Tulsi had to skip her school to work as a labourer to earn her bread. But the inner urge to be literate and educated had driven her to the door of night school organized by ‘Kasturba Trust’ in her village. Inspite of being a student, she took an active part in the literacy movement of Kasturba Trust. In 1963, during his Bhoodan Andolan Padyatra, Vinoba Bhave came to Orissa and Tulsi was selected as a team member to accompany Vinoba during his Orissa tour. While working with Vinoba Bhave, she was very much impressed by his ideals and principles which inspired her to undertake the mission to serve mankind selflessly. Tulsi started her work in Serenda, an extremely poor and backward village of Keonjhar district. “I was an illiterate but I had realised the importance of education since childhood. This made me to open a school to teach the children of this area”, said the sexagenarian Tulsi Munda. Apart from education she took up other developmental programmes.