Social worker Baidehi Panda passes away at 86 due to old-age ailments

Noted freedom fighter and social worker Baidehi Panda died of old-age related ailments here on Tuesday, family sources said. She was 86. Panda, a spinster, breathed her last at a private hospital here. She had earlier announced to donate her body to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. Panda was born at Kata Sahi in Bhadrak district in 1932. She becomes an inmate of Seva Ghar run by freedom fighter Rama Devi at the age of nine.

Panda met Mahatma Gandhi and other freedom fighters and was inspired by them. She actively participated in the Bhoodan movement, started by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1951. She had also stayed at Vinoba Bhave's ashram at Chambal and motivated dacoits to surrender.