Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy

On July 30, 1886, in the small princely state of Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu, a girl was born who would one day change the fate of thousands. Her father, Narayanaswami Iyer, was principal of the Maharaja's College.

She was the first woman admitted to Maharaja's College, the first female student in Surgery at Madras Medical College in 1907, and the first woman House Surgeon at the Government Maternity and Ophthalmic Hospital. She graduated in 1912 and went on to become India's first woman legislator, nominated to the Madras Legislative Council in 1927.

Alongside Annie Besant, she co-founded the Women's Indian Association in 1917, giving Indian women their first organised political voice. She used her legislative position to raise the age of marriage, protect women's property rights, and propose the historic Devadasi Abolition Bill.

As a young doctor, she watched helplessly as her own sister died from a misdiagnosed case of rectal cancer. The grief never left her. Neither did the resolve. In 1954, in a small hut in Adyar, Chennai, the Cancer Institute (WIA) opened its doors — no fanfare, no government subsidy, just twelve beds, a handful of nurses, and the conviction that cancer patients deserved to be seen and treated as human beings.

She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1956, India's third-highest civilian honour. Her name was inscribed on the flag raised at the Red Fort on India's Independence Day, 1947. The Government of Tamil Nadu named its landmark maternal nutrition programme after her. She died on July 22, 1968 — eight days before her 82nd birthday. The institutions she left behind kept standing.