Cuttack’s Deputy Mayor returns to class

Despite being the youngest person to hold the post, Damayanti Majhi is focussed on completing her post-graduation

When 21-year-old Damayanti Majhi was waiting in the corridors of the 150-year-old Ravenshaw University in Cuttack for her classes to commence on Tuesday, most passers-by stopped for a brief moment to convey congratulatory messages, which she joyfully accepted.

Ms. Majhi is no ordinary student at the varsity; the new Deputy Mayor of Cuttack, Odisha’s oldest city, however, has not let the sudden limelight affect her academic pursuits.

The tribal woman, the youngest candidate to occupy deputy mayor’s post in Odisha, is determined to complete her education before embarking on her political journey. Ms Majhi is now in the second year of her Masters in Commerce.

“I attended my class as a regular student leaving behind the fame of being deputy mayor of the historic city outside the classroom. I would continue to do so till completion of my post-graduate programme,” she said.

Ms. Majhi’s ascent to the top post had its share of struggle. Born to daily wager parents, she was raised in a slum. The family comprising of two sisters, a brother and parents lived in three-room house built on a government land in Balisahi slum near the Jagatpur area of the city.

Twenty-five years ago, her parents had migrated from Keonjhar to work as construction labourers. Both of them did their best to provide good education to their children. Ms Majhi stayed in thr Sailabala Women’s college hostel to complete her Plus Two classes. But tragedy was never far away and in 2017, her father drowned in the Mahanadi river.

After demise of her father, Ms. Majhi pitched in to support the family. The money earned from the tuition classes she took funded her studies as well as her sister’s education.