Empowering Countless Harmonious Orphaned Lives Are A Blind Couple From Odisha

Meet Bibhuti Bhusan Senapati and Rubina Panda, the blind couple of Malihata village, Odisha who have turned lives around for 30 other blind young children. The lovely blind orphans in Cuttack’s Mahanga block today are adept in their singing through which they make a living for themselves all on their own.

The blind couple, of which Rubina (32 -years-old) is a trained Hindustani vocalist from Utkal University of Culture in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, and her husband, Bibhuti (38-years-old) is a teacher. Bibhuti was born blind and passed his matriculate from Louis Braille School for the Blind in Bhubhaneshwar followed by which he finished his college and MA from Ravenshaw College and University for the same. He even studied further to acquire a law degree from MS Law College and Bed from Radhanath Institute of Advanced Studies in Cuttack.

His wife Rubina entered the picture in the year 2013 when he met her in an exhibition on World Disability Day. They eventually fell in love and although their family were opposed of their kinship, the couple married regardless by the year 2015.

Another two years passed by and Bibhuti who had struggled with his education once upon a time and pursuing the education he so wanted, decided to open a charitable trust for people like him and his wife. He started the Divyanga Charitable Trust to help people with any disabilities and provide them with support to advance in their education or employment as Bibhuti knows firsthand how difficult that is for differently abled people.

This was not all but Bibhuti also remembers how he himself had to sell newspapers once upon a time at the Cuttack railway station and earn a livelihood to support his finances to pursue education. While Bibhuti made things possible and made ends meet, some of his friends who also were differently abled couldn’t quite accomplish the same goals due to their finances not being good enough to advance their careers. Some even having had turned to beggars.

As awful as that was, Bibhuti decided to help people just like them and others who needed the necessary help to facilitate their lives through education and their careers.

It’s been five years ever since his trust was first started and it has had a positive outlook about it with 45 blind orphans from across the state of Odisha being empowered and guided to pursue their dreams and careers through education. What once seems impossible or difficult was proved otherwise. Of these 45 orphans, four have successfully completed their matriculate with 14 having gotten married as well. The long way that the last five years have been has brought nothing but good to the lives of these orphans who have found and built a family of their own.

With Bibhuti’s wife Rubina being a vocalist was the perfect singing coach the kids and young adults at the trust could ask for. She made sure to train them and about 30 orphans have already formed two troupes of 15 people each. Pradipta Swain and Krushna Patunur, two of the blind orphans have come a long way and excelled in their singing skills through Rubina’s loving guidance.

The 30 orphans have formed two music troupes, Mahaveer Sangeet Jhankar and Maa Dakhina Kali Bhajan Sandhay in the same Mahanga block and earn their living through their beautiful voices. The troupe travel all across the district to perform their harmony filled music.

Even so, the pandemic and the lockdowns did adversely affect the troupes. Bibhuti with what he earned from his 16 thousand salary spent a major chunk of it to take care of the basic necessities of the orphans. The situation has since improved, and the troupes are back on track with their merry singing. The troupes charge for their performances based on the travelling expenses and the time that a singular performance would take.

We can only hope that the adept and ambitious specially abled performers and everyone else being helped by Bibhuti and Rubina’s trust come out and continue to be empowered and successful in their lives.