Doctor - rather one of the first woman doctors in India

[fineleg]

Perhaps Dhondy the doc will be interested in this, and maybe some of you as well who havent read before about her. Since the subject of books was being discussed in another thread - it reminded me of her essays/book - "My Experiences as a Legislator"

[fineleg]

Wiki Info for reading more about her: Muthulakshmi Reddy (30 July 1886 in the princely state of Pudukottai of Tamilnadu - 22 July 1968 Madras) was an eminent medical practitioner, social reformer and Padma Bhushan awardee in India. In spite of various constraints faced by girls in India of her time, she could complete her higher education, and was admitted into medical profession. In 1907, she joined the Madras Medical College, where she achieved a brilliant academic record. With several gold medals and prizes to her credit, Muthulakshmi graduated in 1912 to become one of the first woman doctors in India. Soon thereafter, she came under the influence of Annie Besant, and then of Mahatma Gandhi. Politics She was nominated to the Madras Legislature as a member of legislative council in 1926, and became the first woman to be a member of any legislature in India. When she was elected as the Deputy Chairperson of the legislative council, she became the first woman in the world to become the Vice-President of a Legislature. She was the prime mover behind the legislation that abolished the devadasi system in 1929 and played a keen role in raising the minimum marriage age for women in India. In 1930, she resigned from the Madras Legislature as a protest following the imprisonment of Mahatma Gandhi. She was the founder-president of the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) and became the first alderwoman of the Madras Corporation. Dr Reddy was actively involved with several orphanage homes and women’s welfare organisations, and initiated measures to improve the medical facilities given to slum dwellers. In 1930, she founded Avvai Home, a home for destitute women and orphans at Besant Avenue, Adyar. As an MLC, she introduced a scheme of free education for girls up to class eight. Adyar Cancer Institute During her address at the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Madras Medical College in 1935, Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy first expressed her desire to start a hospital for cancer patients. With the overwhelming support of like-minded people, the foundation stone for Adyar Cancer Institute was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952. The hospital which started functioning on June 18, 1954, was only the second of its kind in India and the first in south India. It is today a world-renowned institution offering treatment to nearly 80,000 cancer patients every year. Awards and books Her book named My Experience as a Legislator recounts her initiates in respect of social reforms taken by her in the Madras Legislature. Government of India conferred on her Padma Bhushan in 1956 in recognition of her meritorious services to the nation.

[fineleg]

A multifaceted personality, Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy (1886-1968) was one of the outstanding Indian women of her time. She had several firsts to her credit: she was the one of the first woman doctors of the country (1912), the first woman member of the Madras Legislative Council, the first woman to be elected as its Deputy Chairperson, the first president of the Women’s India Association, and the first woman to be elected as alderman of the Madras (now Chennai) Corporation. Muthulakshmi Reddy was concerned about the plight of women and deeply interested in liberating them. She fought for their upliftment in several fields. When one of her cousins died of cancer, she took an interest in cancer studies and pursued it at the Royal Cancer Hospital in the United Kingdom. She was instrumental in starting the Cancer Institute in Adyar, Chennai, and founded the Avvai Home for the benefit of destitute women. At the top of these achievements, she is known for her political activism in respect of social issues. First she rose in revolt against child marriage and the devadasi system. (Under this system, parents “married” off a daughter to a deity or a temple before she attained puberty. These girls became dancers and musicians and performed at temple festivals.) In 1930, Muthulakshmi Reddy introduced in the Madras Legislative Council a Bill on the “prevention of the dedication of women to Hindu temples in the Presidency of Madras”. The Bill, which later became the Devadasi Abolition Act, declared the “pottukattu ceremony” in the precincts of Hindu temples or any other place of worship unlawful, gave legal sanction to devadasis to contract marriage, and prescribed a minimum punishment of five years’ imprisonment for those found guilty of aiding and abetting the devadasi system. The Bill had to wait for over 15 years to become an Act. While progressive persons supported the abolition of the system, many conservative nationalists opposed it. While the then Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president C. Rajagopalachari, in the words of Muthulakshmi Reddy, “was not very much in favour of abolition of the pernicious practice”, another Congress veteran, S. Satyamurthy, argued that the devadasi system needed to be protected because it was essentially a part of the indigenous Hindu/national culture. The Bill, introduced by a nationalist, was blocked by nationalists themselves for one reason or another until E.V. Ramasamy ‘Periyar’, leader of the Self-Respect Movement and later the Dravida Kazhagam and one of the progressive nationalists when the Bill was introduced, and Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar, another veteran of the Self-Respect Movement, campaigned actively among the people for the passage of the Bill. Muthulakshmi Reddy could not get the support of a section of nationalist leaders in spite of the fact that she got an endorsement from Mahatma Gandhi “for liberating the women”. Her perseverance, unmindful of the resentment of some of the influential leaders of the time, earned her laurels from progressive intellectuals.