In her teens, Balutai's parents sent her to stay in the hostel of the school for girls which Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve had started a few years earlier in Hingane, then in the outskirts of Pune.
Ratnagiri has the distinction of being the native place of three Bharat Ratna awardees, namely Maharishi Karve, Lokmanya Tilak, Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar