Background
She was the daughter of Gopal Ballav Das and the niece of Utkal Gaurab Madhusudan Das.
She was the daughter of Gopal Ballav Das and the niece of Utkal Gaurab Madhusudan Das.
Among women freedom fighters of Odisha, she occupied a unique and unparalleled position who played an outstanding role in the freedom movement of the state. She was called Maa (Mother) by the people of Orissa. She was arrested several times (in 1921, 1936, 1942) with other women independence activists like Sarala Devi, Malati Choudhury and others and was sent to jail.
After the Independence of India in 1947, Rama Devi dedicated herself to the cause of Bhoodan and Gramdan movement of Acharya Vinoba Bhave.
She helped set up the Utkal Khadi Mandal and also established a Teachers’ Training Centre and Balwadi (crèche) at Ramchandrapur. In 1950 she set up a Tribal Welfare Centre at Dumburugeda.
During the 1951 famine she and Malati worked in famine relief in Koraput. She worked to aid soldiers affected by the Indo-Chinese war of 1962.
During the emergency she protested by bringing out her own newspaper along with Harekrushna Mahatab and Nilmoni Routray.
The Gram Sevak Press, was banned by the government and was arrested along with other leaders from Orissa like Nabakrushna Choudhuri, Harekrushna Mahatab, Manmohan Chowdhury, Smt. Annapurna Moharana, Jaykrushana Mohanty, and others She established a children's cancer hospital at Cuttack.
In recognition of her services to the nation, Ramadevi was honoured with the Jamnalal Bajaj Award on 4 November 1981 and the Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris causa) by Utkal University on 16 April 1984.
She died on 22 July 1985.