Social activist Vimla Bahuguna, who had participated in the Bhoodan Movement in Bihar in 1953-55, passed away on Friday. She was 93.
Vimla, also a Sarvodaya worker, was the wife of environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna.
A disciple of Sarla Behn and a student of Lakshmi Ashram, Kausani, Vimla was deeply inspired by the Gandhian programme of social reconstruction.
She married Sunderlal on the condition that Sunderlal, the then secretary of the UP Congress, quit active politics and engage in empowering the not-so-privileged masses living in remote Uttarakhand. Parvatiya Navjeevan Ashram at Silyara village in Tehri Garhwal, where the couple lived, became a centre of Sarvodaya activism and for implementing village uplift programmes.
The publicity-shy Vimla represented the Gandhian principles of discipline, humility, compassion and honesty. Her weak physical exterior concealed her immense inner strength and her rock-like confidence.
As a social activist, Vimla educated children and inculcated a sense of self-confidence among rural women.
Vimla carried forward the task of her mentor in educating village women, inculcating in them a sense of awareness about their immense inherent potential. This initiative transformed the hill women from “beasts of burden” to human beings with dignity. The mobilisation of thousands of women in Tehri Garhwal during the prohibition (1965-67) and Chipko (1973-1981) movements was the consequence of Vimla’s relentless efforts.
