Google on Saturday, 31 March, commemorated the 153rd birth anniversary of India’s first female doctor Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi with a doodle.
The doodle shows Anandibai holding a degree and wearing a stethoscope around her neck. The artwork in green depicts houses from 19th century India and the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, United States, where Anandibai studied.
Born as Yamuna in 1865 in Kalyan, Maharashtra, Anandibai was only nine years old when she was married off to Gopalrao Joshi, who was 20 years older than her. It was Gopalrao who gave her the name Anandi.
Gopalrao worked as a postal clerk in Kalyan. He was later transferred to Calcutta (now Kolkata). Being a progressive man, Gopalrao supported the education of his wife.
The climacteric point in Anandibai’s life was when her firstborn, whom she gave birth at the age of 14, died due to lack of proper medical attention – a common problem in those times.
Seeing Anandibai’s determination to pursue study in medicine, Gopalrao approached an American missionary for assistance. Anandibai then went to America to study medicine at Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now known as Drexel University College of Medicine). She was only 19 at the time.
By 1886, Anandibai obtained her MD degree though her health had started failing by the time. She returned to India later that year.
Sadly, Tuberculosis took her life on 26 February 1887. She was only 22.
Though Anandibai did not live long, she left behind an example for the women of her time to emulate. To this date, Anandibai Joshi is hailed as one of the pioneers in women’s education in India.
Many have since walked in her footsteps to achieve their dreams and transform the Indian society, one of whom was Rukhmabai Raut – the first practicing Indian female physician in colonial India – who, too, was honoured by Google with a doodle on her birth anniversary five months ago.