Battling odds from a young age and tiding over them with a fighter’s spirit, Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, a medical practitioner and social reformer, was destined to lead the fight for women’s emancipation.
Narayanaswamy, the principal of Maharaja’s College in Pudukkottai married Chandramal, who was a Devadasi. Muthulakshmi, their daughter, was born on July 30, 1886.
Her father decided to educate his daughter because she was keen. Hell broke loose in Pudukkottai because some parents threatened to withdraw their sons from the school, stating that the presence of a girl born to a Devadasi would corrupt their minds. Hence, a curtain was drawn between three girls and forty boys in the class. The issue went to the point where a teacher decided to resign. However, the Maharaja of Pudukkottai supported Muthulakshmi by giving her a scholarship of Rs 150 to study medicine in Madras.
The founder of the Adyar Cancer Institute, Dr. Muthulakshmi was the first and the only woman candidate in the Madras Medical College, in the year 1907. She became ‘the first girl student who scored 100 percent in surgery’.
Dr Muthulakshmi further went on to attend lectures at the theosophical society. After witnessing her 13-year-old cousin die during childbirth, she decided to end the devadasi system. The Devadasi system made women undergo a religious ritual at a pre-pubescent age. The girls were chosen either by a patron or by her mother to practice their art at the temples. Although the male benefactor would be granted access to her art, he would not give her rights to his name or inheritance.
Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy changed the reality of Devadasis across the country forever. She was made the first member of the Women’s Indian Association and was nominated to the Madras Legislative Council. Muthulakshmi initiated the bill to forbid dedicating Devadasis to Hindu temples.
Dr. Muthulakshmi advocated raising the girls’ marriageable age to 16 and sought voting rights for women.
In 1931, she opened the ‘Avvai Home’ in Chennai. The home also had an Institute for the teacher training program, courses on carpentry, handicrafts, and home science. Many poor women, including women from the Devadasi community, graduated from the institute and thrived in the privacy granted by the bill.
She faced opposition for proposing to increase the legally marriageable age for women, and for abolishing the Devadasi system. However, after 17 long years of struggle, the bill became an act.
Today, the Adyar Cancer Institute, which has grown from strength to strength delivering affordable cancer care, stands as a testimony to her vision.
Dr. Muthulakshmi will be remembered forever as the woman who challenged and changed the status quo and the betterment of a whole section of women.
Watch this space throughout International Women’s Month to know more about some strong and impactful women who shaped India’s history!
