Breaking barriers: First Chuktia Bhunjia girl from Odisha clears PhD

A young woman from the Chuktia Bhunjia community, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in Odisha, successfully defended her doctoral thesis in Bhubaneswar on Friday (September 19, 2025) — becoming the first girl from the tribe to achieve this milestone.

Jaiminee Jhankar, the 28-year-old girl from the Chuktia Bhunjia tribe, will be awarded a doctoral degree — the highest level of academic qualification — in a convocation ceremony shortly.

Her accomplishment is remarkable given the deep-rooted discrimination faced by women in her community. Until a few decades ago, Chuktia Bhunjia women were barred from wearing a petticoat, blouse, or coloured saree. Girls were not even permitted to wear footwear.

Hailing from a remote village inside the Sunabeda Sanctuary, she has overcome social and geographical barriers to reach this historic achievement.

Her study titled ‘Toxicity And Safety Implications of Herbal Medicines: A case Study of Nuapada District’ investigated the potential harmful effects of three commonly used traditional medicines, such as Tinospora cordifolia, Cymbopogon citratus, and Gymnema sylvestre, which are commonly found in her home district of Nuapada in Odisha.

“While these plants are widely used, there have been no previous studies on their toxicity. Using zebrafish as a model organism, this research found that these plant extracts can cause developmental problems in zebrafish embryos, including heart defects, spinal deformities, and increased mortality,” said Ms. Jhankar

Her research highlights the need for further studies to assess the safety of these traditional medicines and to identify the specific compounds responsible for the observed toxicity. The Chuktia Bhunjia girl completed her doctoral research in five years time under guidance of Rasmi Mohapatra, Head of Botany Department of city-based KISS University.

The journey of Ms. Jaiminee Jhankar has been nothing short of extraordinary — the kind one often finds in novels and films. Until just two years ago, her panchayat headquarter at Sunabeda, perched 3,500 feet above sea level, was connected by an all-weather road for the first time.

Before that, Jaiminee had to cross more than 20 km of dense forest — often walking, sometimes pillion-riding — just to catch a bus to reach college. Each of her academic milestones marked a ‘first’ for the Chuktia Bhunjia tribe. No other her male counterpart in her tribe had completed bachelor degree in science.

“I am proud of my daughter. Our tribe has long discriminated against women. Two decades ago, women were not allowed to wear petticoats, blouses, or coloured sarees. They had to attend social functions clad only in a single piece of white saree,” recalls her father, Biju Jhankar.

For generations, girls in the tribe were barred from attending school once they attained puberty. With this biological change came further restrictions: they were forbidden from eating food cooked by others. At public functions, women and girls were handed raw food and asked to prepare their own meals separately.

“Though girls today go to school and wear footwear, many traditions still discriminate against us. Since I wear footwear and eat food outside home, I will have to undergo post-death rituals if I will ever cook in our sacred kitchen back home,” said Ms. Jaiminee Jhankar.

She credits her success to her parents, who defied the diktats of the tribe. Her mother, Baidehi Jhankar, was among the first to break convention by wearing a petticoat, blouse, and coloured saree. The family endured five years of social boycott for this act of defiance, but it opened the door for other Chuktia Bhunjia women to free themselves from rigid traditions.

One of her mentors, Rajeev Kumar Swain, senior scientist at the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, praised her doctoral presentation as “impressive.”