Jajpur: Gandhian-philanthropist and president of ‘Utkal Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi’ Krishna Mohanty will be conferred with National Mahatma Gandhi Award for the year 2023.
She will be receive the award, comprising a certificate and Rs 1 lakh, during the upcoming national session of Sarva Seva Sangh in Jaipur, the national president of the association, Chandan Pal, said in a press release.
Krishna comes from a family with a legacy of social service. She is the daughter of Gandhian scholar and thinker and former Chief Minister Nabakrushna Choudhury and social activist and member of the Constituent Assembly of India, Malati Choudhury. When her entire family and her elder sister went put behind bars for ‘Banar-sena’ activities, Mahatma Gandhi asked Aasha Devi Sorkar to take little Krishna, who was then 5-year-old, to Sevagram Ashram. She had then joined the Mahatma during his morning walks and started her primary education in Marathi.
Working since 1996 towards the development of Bajiraut Chhatravas in Angul, formed by her mother, and the Utkal Navajeevan Mandal, a voluntary organisation, Krishna has taken up many social issues and has organised several campaigns to improve conditions of women and children in the rural areas of the region. She also used to teach children of migrant labourers when in Delhi for some time with her husband, Nehru Literacy Award winner Prof Bibhuti Bhushan Mohanty.
The 84-year-old is currently staying at the Chhatravas in Angul.
