Gurubai Karmarkar

Gurubai Karmarkar
Died 1931
Occupation medical doctor

Gurubai Karmarkar (died 1932) was the second Indian woman to graduate from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886.[1]

Medical career

Gurubai Karmarkar returned to India in 1893 after receiving her medical degree. She worked for the 23 years at the American Marathi Mission, a Christian establishment, in Bombay, India.[1] Her medical work focused mainly on the most disenfranchised members of the Indian caste system. A prominent group in her practice were women of all castes.[2] In one letter to the Woman's board of missions, Dr. Karmarkar tells the stories of two "young child-wives" she treated over the past year. Both young woman suffered abuse from their husbands and in-laws. The first young wife had been branded on her foot to stop her from running away. The second wife was malnourished and was suffering from a severe fever. Dr. Karmarkar uses these two stories as a way to illustrate the plight of Indian women to her counterparts in the United States.[3]

Karmarkar was a member of the National Board of the YWCA in India.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 Ramanna, Mridula. ''Health Care in Bombay Presidency, 1896-1930.'' Primus Books: 2012. page 138-139. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  2. ↑ Missions, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign (1915). "Annual report - American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions".
  3. ↑ Boston, Woman's Board of Missions (1896). "Life and light for woman".
  4. ↑ "Dr. Gurabai Kamarkar" The Woman Citizen (6 July 1918): 113.
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