new Delhi. Women in India are working side by side with men in all fields. From politics to sports, women have shown their talent and ability. But in the 18th century this was not the case at all. The woman was known only to bear children and take care of the household. He had nothing to do with education. But in such difficult circumstances, Anandibai Joshi did a feat that no one could have imagined.
Anandibai Joshi progressed in the field of education and became the first doctor of India after getting education from abroad. He was born on 31 March 1865 in a Brahmin family in the city of Pune. She was married to Gopal Gopalrao Joshi for 25 years when she was 9 years old. After this, at the age of 14, Anandi Maa and her only child died within 10 days, causing a great shock to her. After losing her child, she vowed that she would one day become a doctor and try to stop such an untimely death. Her husband Gopalrao also gave her full support and encouraged her.
Women’s education was difficult in the 18th century. When Anandibai decided to become a doctor, there was a lot of criticism in her society that a married Hindu woman should go abroad (Pennsylvania) to study medicine. But Anandibai was a determined woman and did not care at all for criticism. Her husband Gopalrao got her enrolled in missionary school and got her further studies, after which she went to Calcutta. Here he learned to read and speak Sanskrit and English.
Anandibai’s husband encouraged her to pursue medical education. In 1880, he sent a letter to a famous American missionary, Royal Wilder, in which he sought information about his wife’s interest in studying medicine in the United States, from where she went to America after getting the information, she joined the Women’s Medical Center of Pennsylvania. He took admission in the medical program in the college.
Anandibai made her dream come true in 1886 at the age of 19 and got her MD degree. She became the first woman doctor in India to get an MD degree, in the same year Anandibai returned to India. Later she got the appointment of doctor in charge in the women’s ward of Albert Edward Hospital in the princely state of Kolhapur.
While the Joshi couple were in Calcutta, Anandibai’s health was deteriorating. She was suffering from weakness, constant headache, sometimes fever and sometimes shortness of breath. Anandibai, who made a record by becoming India’s first female doctor, succumbed to tuberculosis even before she started her medical practice. For this reason, on 26 February 1887, Anandibai died at the age of 22. His death was mourned all over India.