Book on India's premier women doctors

Westland Publications is coming up with journalist Kavitha Rao's book on India's firstwomen doctors.

Including the stories of Anandibai Joshee (India's first female physician), Kadambini Ganguly (first Indian female doctor who practiced with a degree in western medicine), Rukhmabai Raut (one of the first practicing women doctors, who escaped child marriage and helped raise the age of marriage through the Age of Consent Act, 1891), Haimabati Sen, Muthulakshmi Reddi and Mary Poonen Lukose, the book will trace the unconventional paths these women followed,how they balanced work and family lives, and their impacto medical learning forwomen.

These pioneers would go on to inspire other women to become doctors, some of whom would found institutes that shaped modern India. Kavitha says,"Medicine is a highly sought-aftercareer for Indian women today, but how did we get here? Early women doctors in the nineteenthcentury crossed oceans, escaped childmarriages, divorced husbands, and defied Hindu orthodoxy to become "ladydoctors". Their deeds are all themore astonishing, given most women were in purdah.

'Their compelling stories have been erased from our memories, because histories have mostly beenwritten by men, about men. There are very few records of these women. This book intends to unearth their stories and make the maccessible to everyone, so that they are not forgotten."

In their forgotten lives lie many lessons for modern women.

How did they defy the idea that women were unfit for medicine? What did they do to escape the suffocating bonds of family, caste and society? How did lady doctors go from being called 'whores' to highly respected professionals? This is their story. The book will be published in 2020.