Biju Patnaik: Odisha Icon Reserved Women’s Power 27 Years Early

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On his death anniversary, a tribute to the aviator-statesman who built modern Odisha and pioneered women’s reservation in Panchayati Raj long before it became national policy

By PRADEEP KUMAR PANDA

Bhubaneswar, April 13, 2026 — There is a particular kind of statesman who does not merely respond to history — he anticipates it. Bijayananda Patnaik, known to all of Odisha and much of India as Biju Babu, was that kind of man. Pilot, freedom fighter, industrialist, two-term Chief Minister — his life reads like a novel that no editor would believe. But it is in one specific, quietly radical act of governance that his vision most clearly separated him from his contemporaries: in the early 1990s, when women’s political representation was still a distant aspiration in most of India, Biju Patnaik made Odisha the first state in independent India to reserve 33 per cent of seats for women in its Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Parliament would not pass a similar measure for the entire country until 2023 — nearly three full decades later.

The Man Before the Moment

Born on March 5, 1916, in Cuttack, into a family steeped in nationalist politics, Biju Patnaik’s trajectory was always unconventional. A childhood encounter with a small plane landing at Cuttack’s Killa Fort ignited a passion for aviation that would define the first half of his extraordinary life. He trained as a pilot, joined Indian National Airways in the 1930s, served in the Royal Indian Air Force during World War II — evacuating civilians from Japanese-occupied Rangoon, supplying Allied forces, and delivering supplies to the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. His wife, Gyan Patnaik — India’s first woman commercial pilot — flew missions alongside him.

His politics were equally fearless. He joined the Quit India Movement in 1942, secretly transported underground leaders Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan across India, distributed nationalist literature to Indian troops and was imprisoned by the British for 30 months for his trouble.

His most celebrated international contribution came in 1947, when at Jawaharlal Nehru’s request he flew a daring mission into Dutch-occupied Java. With his wife as co-pilot, he landed on an improvised airstrip near Jakarta — under threat of being shot down — to evacuate Indonesian Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir and other leaders including Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta to India for a secret meeting with Nehru. The mission helped internationalise Indonesia’s cause and led to UN intervention. Indonesia awarded him honorary citizenship and its highest civilian honour, Bhoomi Putra — Son of the Soil — a title rarely conferred on foreigners. A room in the Indonesian Embassy in New Delhi is named after him to this day.

The same Dakota DC-3 he flew on that mission is now displayed at Bhubaneswar Airport — a restored relic of a life that seems too large for a single biography.

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Chief Minister: Building the Bones of Odisha

Biju Patnaik became Odisha’s youngest Chief Minister on June 23, 1961, at the age of 45, after leading Congress to an unprecedented majority of 82 seats out of 140. His first term (1961–1963) was an exercise in industrial nation-building — Paradeep Port, Bhubaneswar Airport (now Biju Patnaik International Airport), the Regional Engineering College Rourkela (now NIT Rourkela), NALCO, Talcher Thermal Power Station, and the Balimela Hydel Project. He resigned in 1963 under the Kamaraj Plan, went through spells in national politics, clashed with Indira Gandhi, was jailed during the 1975 Emergency, served as Union Minister for Steel, Mines and Coal under Morarji Desai, and returned to Odisha politics with undiminished energy.

His second term as Chief Minister — sworn in on his own birthday, March 5, 1990 — would prove to be his most visionary.

The Women’s Reservation That India Waited 27 Years to Follow

When Biju Patnaik returned to power in 1990 with a landslide three-fourths majority under the Janata Dal banner, he came with a clarity of purpose that distinguished him from contemporaries still treating women’s empowerment as a campaign slogan rather than a governance commitment.

Through the Odisha Zilla Parishad Act 1991 and the Gram Panchayat Samiti Amendment Act 1992, his government legislated 33 per cent reservation for women across all three tiers of the Panchayati Raj Institutions — the gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad. The reservation explicitly included women from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. The result was transformative: over 28,000 women, many of whom had never previously participated in public life, were elected to local government bodies across Odisha.

This was not merely symbolic. Biju Patnaik granted these bodies genuine financial powers and administrative autonomy, making them meaningful units of self-governance rather than rubber-stamp institutions. The women who entered these bodies were not token representatives — they were empowered decision-makers with real authority over local development, public distribution, social security, calamity relief and rural employment schemes. Panchayat Raj Divas is observed on his birthday every year in Odisha in recognition of this legacy.

The national Parliament would pass the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — reserving 33 per cent of Lok Sabha and state assembly seats for women — only in September 2023, with its implementation now expected from the 2029 elections. India waited 27 years to catch up with what Biju Patnaik had already done at the grassroots level of democracy.

Women’s Empowerment as a Systemic Commitment

What made Biju Patnaik’s approach distinctive was that he did not treat women’s reservation as an isolated policy measure. He embedded it within a broader architecture of gender equity.

He raised the upper age limit by five years for women applying to state government jobs and examinations. He announced 30 per cent reservation for women in government appointments. He established the Mahila Vikash Samabaya Nigam to support women’s entrepreneurship. He took over management of all government-aided primary, middle and high schools — directly benefiting thousands of women teachers. He established girls’ high schools, women’s colleges, women’s polytechnics and B.Ed. colleges, including in tribal areas. He provided scholarships to SC/ST girls. He organised state-level workshops on women and science and technology, insisting that the exclusion of women from technical education was not a cultural inevitability but a policy failure that government had the power and responsibility to correct.

His vision was explicit: he wanted young women who would “put the interest of the state before them” and who would, “by their brains, intelligence and capacity, recapture the history of Kalinga.” He was not merely opening doors — he was dismantling the walls.

The Power Reformer, the Builder, the Dreamer

Beyond women’s empowerment, his second term continued his lifelong habit of doing things before anyone thought to ask for them. He pioneered power sector reforms in Odisha by unbundling generation, distribution and transmission — opening the sector to private participation at a time when such an idea was radical in Indian governance. He endorsed the missile testing facility at Wheeler Island. He strengthened OUAT and established what later became Biju Patnaik University of Technology.

He instituted the Kalinga Prize for the popularisation of science — entrusted to UNESCO in 1951 — one of the oldest international science communication awards in the world, still given annually. He received the Soviet Order of Lenin in 1967 and Russia’s Jubilee Medal in 1995. When he died on April 17, 1997, his coffin was draped with the flags of three nations — India, Russia and Indonesia. Not many men earn that kind of farewell.

The Legacy

Biju Patnaik’s death anniversary falls on April 17. As India debates the implementation of women’s reservation in Parliament — a measure that will come into effect only in 2029 — it is worth pausing to recall that one man, in one state, had already done it. Quietly, deliberately, and with the full weight of legislative authority behind it.

Bhumiputra. Son of the Soil. The Indonesians gave him that name. Odisha — and India — has earned the right to call him that too.

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FAQ

Q: What was Biju Patnaik’s contribution to women’s reservation in India?

A: During his second term as Odisha Chief Minister (1990–1995), Biju Patnaik made Odisha the first Indian state to reserve 33% of seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions — through the Odisha Zilla Parishad Act 1991 and Gram Panchayat Samiti Amendment Act 1992. Over 28,000 women were elected as a result.

Q: When did India pass a similar women’s reservation law nationally?

A: Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in September 2023 — 27 years after Biju Patnaik had already implemented 33% women’s reservation in Odisha’s Panchayati Raj. Its national implementation is expected from the 2029 elections.

Q: What other women’s empowerment measures did Biju Patnaik implement?

A: He announced 30% reservation for women in government appointments, raised age limits for women in state exams, established the Mahila Vikash Samabaya Nigam for women’s entrepreneurship, built girls’ colleges and polytechnics including in tribal areas, and provided scholarships to SC/ST girls.

Q: When did Biju Patnaik die?

A: Biju Patnaik died on April 17, 1997, at Escorts Hospital, New Delhi, of cardio-respiratory failure. He was 81. His coffin was draped with the flags of India, Russia and Indonesia.

Q: Why was Biju Patnaik called Bhoomi Putra?

A: Indonesia awarded him the honorary title Bhoomi Putra — Son of the Soil — for his daring 1947 mission to evacuate Indonesian Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir from Dutch-occupied Java, which helped internationalise Indonesia’s independence struggle and led to UN intervention.