75. Ashalata Baidya (12.2.1956 - 25.3.1971)

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: “I do not waste time, ever. I did not waste even an hour in my whole student life for any boyfriend. I did not even get married. I believe in hard work and sacrifice”.
And she says: “Hello. I am Asha Lata. I am thrilled that you are reading this. While we are quietly working in the poor villages, we are hidden away from the people in the big cities of Bangladesh and the world. Sometimes as we battle to overcome oppression and poverty we feel that nobody cares. Your visit to our website gives us all encouragement. We realise that we are not alone in our desire to live in a better world with equality for all … ”

Asha Lata Baidya, or Ashalata Boidda – Bangladesh
She works for ‘Surjamukhi Sangstha SMS’, short for ‘Sunflower Association SMS‘.
Asha Lata Baidya, or Ashalata Boidda, is one of Bangladesh’s best-known freedom-fighters. She joined the freedom struggle of 1971 against Pakistan when she was only 15 years old and went on to lead the women’s guerrilla corps. After she completed her studies – suspended until her country won independence – she set up the Surjamukhi Sangstha SMS. SMS has been working on issues ranging from setting up cooperatives and helping with loans to women’s empowerment, education, and environmental issues. More than 200,000 families have benefited from Asha Lata’s 34 years of tireless activism.
She is the eldest of three sisters, was born in Latenga village, Kotalipara thana in Bangladesh on February 12, 1956. Her father, Haripada Boidda, was a schoolteacher, her mother, Sharalamoyee, a homemaker.
It was in school that Ashalata became involved in the political struggle in the then East Pakistan. The Pakistani genocide against Bangladesh was launched on March 25, 1971. A month later, a group of freedom-fighters visited the Boidda house and asked whether one member from the family would join the freedom struggle. “My father told them that he had no son”, she recalls. “His daughter, meaning me, would join them. I was very excited and left home with the group to take part in the liberation war”. Thus, all of 15-years-old, Ashalata joined Bangladesh’s fight for independence.