Purubai Liladharaben: The Gandhian Woman From Gujarat Who Gave Odisha’s Orphaned Girls A Home
Leading life as a Gandhian, Purubai, translated her dreams into a mission - to provide shelter, education and rebuild life of abandoned girls in Odisha.
Published : January 28, 2026 at 12:27 PM IST
By Jeevan Jyoti Nayak
Balasore (Odisha): Much before welfare schemes and child protection laws came into being and were enforced, a frail but resolute woman arrived in coastal Odisha carrying Gandhian faith and belief in service. The Gujarat-born Purubai Liladharaben, fondly called Purubai Maa, chose Soro in Balasore district as her 'karma bhoomi', dedicating her life to orphaned girls, child widows and the most abandoned of society.
Though she had no connection with Odisha, she made one that became a legacy. Driven by her conscience, she built the Gandhi Seva Sangh Purubai Kanyashram exactly like an institution born out of India’s freedom movement and Gandhiji’s philosophy of constructive work. Today, nearly a century later, it continues to breathe and fills the lives of many with love and laughter.
For Mahatma Gandhi, non-violence was incomplete without social reconstruction. So alongside protests and satyagrahas, he believed service to the oppressed, particularly women, was a parallel movement. It was this call that brought Purubai from Sabarmati Ashram to Odisha in the late 1920s.
She joined the Salt Satyagraha at Inchudi and Eram in 1930 and marched alongside stalwarts like Rama Devi, Malati Devi and Annapurna Devi. But while others returned to political mobilisation, Purubai decided to stay back. Gandhi entrusted her service work and she chose Balasore's Soro which was then a part of undivided Bhadrak.
In Raipur area, Purubai began her work in a rented house with five orphaned, child-widowed girls. Neither did she have any funding or infrastructure. The only thing she had was Gandhiji's teachings and a purpose. She educated the girls, taught them skills, rebuilt their confidence and later arranged their marriages at a time when widow remarriage was socially forbidden.
The institution came to be known as Purubai Kanyashram, operating under the aegis of Wardha-based Gandhi Seva Sangh.
Purubai’s own life had tragic ups and downs. Born in 1871 in Kutch, Gujarat, she lost her husband quite early in life. Inspired by Gandhian ideals, she left her daughter with relatives and joined Sabarmati Ashram to learn khadi weaving and other crafts. But tragedy struck again when her only daughter died during childbirth. Purubai performed her last rites and came back immediately to join service.
When Vinoba Bhave visited the ashram during his 1955 Odisha padayatra, he appreciated Purubai’s effort in keeping Gandhiji's mission alive. She had marched with Gandhi and walked with freedom fighters.
In Balasore, when illness weakened her, she adopted freedom fighter Kapil Charan Das as her son in 1970 to ensure that the ashram continues to serve people. After her death on September 25, 1974, Kapil formally registered the institution under the Societies Act, 1860, renaming it Gandhi Seva Sangh Purubai Kanyashram.
According to Sumati Mohanty, current secretary of the ashram and daughter-in-law of Kapil Charan Das, “The Kanyashram campaign began in 1928 when Gandhiji and Iswarlal came to Odisha. Purubai arrived in 1930 and stayed back in Balasore to work exclusively for abandoned girls.”
A statue of Purubai has been installed near the Soro Bazaar overbridge. Once home to over 210 girls from across Odisha, the ashram now takes care of 130 girls, slightly above the officially permitted 125, due to pressing need. Today, only girls from Balasore district are admitted, but the mission continues without disruption.
The ashram provides the girls education, vocational training, cultural exposure and support, starting from schooling till they get employment and even arranges marriage for girls who have nowhere else to go.
A local resident Purbasha Mohanty says, “This institution carries the responsibility of rebuilding shattered dreams. It teaches girls how to stand on their own feet and face the world.”
Once a resident of the ashram, Mandakini Dash, says her seven years in the home were a blessing. "I came here after losing my father. I grew up here. I learned dance and music. Everything has changed now, but the love and values of Purubai Maa are still alive,” says Mandakini who returns to the ashram as and when time permits.
Sabitri Pandit, who has served the ashram since 1980, echoes the sentiment. “I cannot and do not want to leave this place. These children are my family. We may not be Purubai, but we live by her spirit and resolve.”
In Soro, Purubai is remembered not only as a freedom fighter, but as a mother, a reformer and a conscience keeper of Gandhian India. A century later, her ideals remain alive in the home and service has not lost its meaning.
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