On Intl Women’s Day, meet Odisha’s ‘Twitter Queen’ who has resolved over 5000 issues

Bhubaneswar: As the world celebrates International Women’s Day-2022 with the theme ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’, here’s the tale of a 25-year-old girl from Odisha’s Bargarh district who used microblogging platform Twitter constructively to resolve more than 5,000 issues of people of the region so far and ensured a ‘sustainable tomorrow’ for them.

Also known as ‘Twitter Queen’, Charulata Barik alias Deepa is a resident of Temri village under Paikamal block of the district. Deepa, who is currently pursuing PG course in Education subject in IGNOU, is the daughter of Amrut Barik, a farmer, and Sushama Barik, an Anganwadi worker.

It all started on April 24, 2019 on the occasion of her birthday when her family gifted her a smartphone. Later, local social worker Divas Kumar Sahu taught her the way of using Twitter and other social media platforms to resolve various issues of the people by drawing the attention of the concerned officials and authorities of the government.

Deepa initially tweeted regarding the plight of an elderly man of her village whose house was severely damaged due to heavy rainfall. The elderly man got an assistance of Rs 98,000 and a pucca house from the government, thanks to the effort by her.

And then, there was no looking back for Deepa.

She has been tweeting about the issues being faced by widows, elderly persons and physically challenged persons in order to ensure provision of benefits under government schemes for them.

More than 1000 eligible persons have so far received pension from the government after she brought their problems to fore via Twitter.

With gradual passing of time, she has not only been tweeting about the issues of residents of the region, but also of entire state.

The girl has received praise from all quarters for her noble and exemplary act.