Aug 15, 2024
Ishita Roy
Celebrating the 78th Independence Day, let us look back at our history of healthcare, where against all odds, women excelled in the field, becoming the first women doctors in India.
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Journalist, author and lawyer Kavitha Rao in her book Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine writes about the earliest women doctors, all born in the late 19th century.
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She was the first woman from the erstwhile Bombay presidency of India to study and graduate with a two-year degree in western medicine in the United States.
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She and Ambika Bai Joshi both got their degree in Western medicine in 1886. However, She was India's first practicing lady doctor as Ambika Bai died soon after.
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She is best known for being one of the first practicing women doctors in colonial India as well as being involved in a landmark legal case involving her marriage as a child bride between 1884 and 1888.
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She was an Indian medical practitioner, social reformer and Padma Bhushan award recipient. She was the first female student to be admitted into a men's college, the first woman House Surgeon in the Government Maternity and Ophthalmic Hospital.
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She was an Indian gynecologist, obstetrician and the first female Surgeon General in India. She also served as the head of the Health Department in the Princely State of Travancore and was the first woman legislator of the state.
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These women, despite all odds, pursued medicine to ensure that the women in the next generation can be educated, aware and informed on their health.
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