Awardee Profiles

With the pallu of her Sambalpuri saree draped over her head, a vibrant line of sindoor parting her hair, and the traditional dual nose pins gleaming on her face, 73-year-old Smt. Pramila Bisoi stands out in the line of MPs elected from Odisha.

Smt. Pramila Bisoyi is the current Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from Aska and hails from Chermaria village of Aska block in Ganjam district, Odisha. She is also the secretary of the women’s SHG collective in Aska block that has around 700 SHGs. It is her grassroots involvement and knowledge of ground realities that have paved the way for her political win.

Smt. Bisoi was the face of BJD’s flagship Mission Shakti programme for women. Started in 2001, the scheme is reported to have benefited around 70 lakh women from more than six lakh women’s SHGs in the State. She was a major force behind the villagers’ peacock protection movement at Pakidi hills near Aska, for which she was honoured with the Odisha government’s Prakruti Mitra and Prakruti Bandhu award, and the royal bank of Scotland Groups 'Earth Heroes Award for 2019.

Since the past five decades, she has also been assisting with childbirth and postnatal care in her village — and it’s this service that earned her the moniker, pari ma. In recognition of Smt. Bisoi’s contribution to politics in Bharat and in appreciation of her endeavours of women empowerment, we, at MIT World Peace University, Pune, feel privileged, today on 3rd February 2023, to confer upon Smt. Promila Bisoi the Bharat Asmita Jana Pratinidhi Shreshta Award as the Best Exponent of Parliamentary Practices.