Google-Doodle celebrates India's first woman legislator's birth anniversary

New Delhi: Celebrating one of the prominent personalities of India, Google dedicated its doodle to Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi, who was not only country's first woman legislator but also a surgeon, educator, lawmaker and social reformer.

Remembering Dr. Reddi on her 133rd birth anniversary, google put up a picture of the devoted social reformer on its creative interface with Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi leading the lives of many women, empowering them and taking them forward in main stream. The Doodle was created by Bangalore-based guest artist Archana Sreenivasan.

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Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi not only dedicated her life to public health but also fought the battle against gender inequality. In her memory, the Government of Tamil Nadu on Monday announced that her birth anniversary will be observed as ‘Hospital Day' every year in all the government hospitals in the State.

Born in 1886 in a small town of Tamil Nadu, Pudukkottai, Dr. Reddi was the first Indian girl student to get entry in the Department of Surgery at Madras Medical College., and from here this ambitious girl never looked back. Bagging many firsts in her life she also took the credit of becoming India's first women doctors in 1912, and the first woman house surgeon in the Government Maternity Hospital, Madras.

In 1918, she co-founded the Women's Indian Association and as the first woman member (and vice president) of the Madras Legislative Council — making her the first woman legislator in India. Her efforts to raise the minimum age for marriage for girls, pushed the Council to pass the Immoral Traffic Control Act, and the Devadasi system abolishment Bill.

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In 1954, Dr. Reddi opened the Cancer Institute in Chennai and in 1956 was awarded the Padma Bhushan.

In August 15, 1947 Independence Day edition of 'The Hindu', Dr. Reddi briefly talked about the role of women in an article:

"Indian women have a great role to play in the modern world, with its chaos and rumblings of another war. With their background of philosophy and religion, with their apprenticeship under Gandhian leadership, with the sense of motherhood strong in them they can be and should be the ambassadors of love, peace and unity. It is the Gandhian concept of non-violence alone that can save the world from a cataclysm. And it is the women of India alone who can carry the message best so that the world may come together in unity and peace."

The great humanitarian and a women who still is an inspiration for many, passed away in 1968 at the age of 81.

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