Hospital Day: Life & Works Of MuthuLakshmi Reddy, First Woman Surgeon Of India

On July 30, 1886, Muthulakshmi Reddy was born in Pudukottai of Madras Presidency to Narayanaswami Iyer and Chandrammal. Narayanaswami was the Principal of the renowned Maharaja's College.

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Muthulakshmi did her education in Maharaja's High School Pudukottai and Madras Medical College(Department of Surgery).

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In 1912, she became the first woman House Surgeon in the Government Maternity and Ophthalmic Hospital in Madras.

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In 1914, at the age of 28, she married Sundara Reddy. They had children- S Krishnamurthy and S Rammohan.

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Reddy became the first Indian woman member of the Legislative Council in 1927. However, in 1930, she resigned from the council and opposed the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi after the Salt March.

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It was during the years that followed, that she founded the Avvai Home in Vepery. She worked with the Hertog education committee and recommended to the government to raise the age of marriage for girls to 16 and boys to 21.

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She established the Adyar Cancer Centre in June 1954. We celebrate her birthday as the "Hospital Day"

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Reddy received the Padma Bhushan in 1956 and died in July 1964 at the age of 81. She also has a book to her credit- "My Experience As A Legislator"

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