Odisha Sisters Strengthen Legal and Social Action Network

Bhubaneswar, October 3, 2026: Twenty-two Sisters involved in legal, social and justice ministries from five dioceses of Odisha met in Bhubaneswar for a capacity-building programme aimed at strengthening their response to issues affecting vulnerable and marginalised communities.

Organised by the Sister Lawyers Forum–India (SLFI), Odisha Region, the programme at the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) brought together Sister lawyers and social workers from several religious congregations, including the Handmaids of Mary, Servants of the Holy Spirit, Daughters of Charity, Carmelite Sisters of St. Teresa, Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood, Sisters of the Cross of Chavanod and Franciscan Clarist Congregation.

The gathering focused on linking legal expertise with grassroots social ministry and creating a stronger collective response to issues such as inequality, discrimination, tribal land alienation, displacement, minority concerns and threats to human dignity.

Opening the programme, Advocate Sr. Sujata Jena, Odisha Regional Coordinator of SLFI, urged participants to examine the structural causes behind the problems they encounter in their ministries.

“How can we live our vocation prophetically, and what can be our concrete response?” she asked, stressing the importance of understanding the laws, policies and structures that shape people's lives.

A key session was led by Sandeep Kumar Pattnaik, a tribal governance analyst with more than two decades of experience in policy research, advocacy and rights-based development.

Pattnaik encouraged the participants to approach grassroots problems through systematic investigation. He urged them to ask what the issue was, who was affected, what caused it, which laws and policies applied, what Parliament and the courts had said, and what civil society and the media had done.

The approach was presented as a practical tool for social ministry, enabling grassroots workers not merely to respond to individual cases but also to document issues, understand their structural causes and engage in advocacy.

Participants shared experiences from their respective ministries. Sr. Rutamani Katraka of the social wing of Berhampur Diocese welcomed the opportunity to discover the extent of legal expertise among Sisters in Odisha.

“I didn’t know that we have a number of Sisters who are lawyers in our state. How blessed we are that we can look up to them for any help,” she said.

Canossian Sr. Chitikela Sujatha, working in the remote parish of Juba in Berhampur Diocese, highlighted the everyday injustices faced by poor communities and the need for accessible legal support.

The discussions pointed to a gap between grassroots social workers who encounter legal problems regularly and the availability of legal expertise. Participants explored ways to bridge this gap through stronger networking between Sister lawyers and social workers.

The meeting concluded with proposals to strengthen the Sister Lawyers Forum, share legal and policy updates, build links with civil society organisations, support one another in difficult cases and continue joint learning and advocacy.

The proposed network would enable grassroots concerns to be identified and documented, linked to relevant laws and policies, examined from legal and social perspectives, and pursued through appropriate institutions and advocacy mechanisms.

The gathering marked an effort to move from isolated interventions towards coordinated action, combining grassroots experience, legal knowledge, documentation, networking and advocacy to address social and structural injustices.

By Sr. Sujatha Jena