Sangkhumi Bualchhuak

Sangkhumi Bualchhuak is a social worker and women’s leader from Mizoram, and chairman of the New Life Home Society, which in 1990 opened Jerico Inn, the state’s first de-addiction, rehabilitation and counselling centre for women. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of social work, from Mizoram ^[1].

Early years

Sangkhumi was born at Champhai on 1 March 1949 ^[2]. She took a BA with honours and an MA in history from Gauhati University, and in 1970 represented Assam at an international youth seminar held to close the Gandhi centenary celebrations ^[2].

Jerico Inn

As Jerico Inn’s founding project director she started courses in tailoring, embroidery and beauty work, helping women who came for treatment to earn a living and rebuild their families ^[2]. In 2016 she inaugurated another de-addiction and rehabilitation centre, Van Palai, on land she had donated ^[2].

MHIP

Through the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP), the umbrella body of Mizo women’s groups, she helped set up an orphanage, Hmangaihte Run, as vice-president ^[2]. As president in 2005 she won permission for the group to act as an adoption agency ^[2]. Her campaigning helped make Mizoram the first state to implement the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, and she had a short Mizo version printed for display in every home ^[2]. Her efforts led to the Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Properties Act and an amendment to the village councils law, both in 2014 ^[2].

In 2019 she set up a high school in Chawilung village, which had none ^[2]. She has been given the Mizo name “Zohmangaihi”, lover of the Mizos ^[2].