She has active interest in social reform and has fought against social injustice on many occasions. One important incident in her life is protesting against colour (Caste/ religion) discrimination by the high priests of Jagannath Temple at Puri. She wrote a news paper article titled “The Colour of Religion is Black” (Dharmara Ranga Kala) against the discriminative and undesirable behaviour of the Priests, for which she had to fight a defamation case lodged by the high priests of Puri for ten years.
When Roop Kanwar of Rajasthan, a young bride was forced to death with her dead husband, Pratibha wrote an article titled “Definition of Sati” (Sati ra Paribhasha) reacting to the comments of the then Sankaracharya of Puri supporting Sati tradition. She had to face the ire of many for raising her voice against Sankarayacharya.
She was bold enough to raise her voice as a Member against the then Chairman of Odisha Public Service Commission for adopting irregularities and corrupt practice in conducting the Odisha Civil Service Examination for which she was threatened for life by the Chairman. On the joint memorandum of all the members, ultimately the Chairman was suspended and the transparency was restored. For this she had to pay the price by fighting a defamation case of 1 crore against her by the Chairman. She fought the case for seven years and ultimately got the justice when the case was dismissed.
She worked tirelessly in the cyclone-affected area after Odisha’s super cyclone of October,1999 and counselled the unfortunate people who lost their wealth, home and family members. The result was her classic novel “Magnamati”.
