She was an Indian psychiatrist, social worker & the founder of Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) a Chennai based non-governmental organisation. It works for rehabilitation of people afflicted with Schizophrenia & other mental disorders. She was a former Madras Medical Service officer & the first woman psychiatrist in India. In 1992, she received Padma Bhushan for her contributions to society.
Born on 5 April 1923 in Mangalore, Karnataka youngest among the eight children.Graduating in medicine from Madras Medical College in 19511, she did her residency at Irwin Hospital, New Delhi.Later she studied for MD which she obtained in 1957.With a Diploma in Psychiatry at NIMHANS, she became the first woman psychiatrist in India.
Recently, she died in Chennai at the age of 98. At a time when there were few takers for the discipline & mentally ill seen as less human-condemned to being sedated or subject to shock therapies, locked up in cells, forsaken by the families, she worked to give them a life.
Pre-independence to the present, when ideas of self-care, therapy & neuro divergence are no longer taboo we have come a long way. All thanks to pioneers like her. She is the first!
I remember another ‘Sharada’ a Marathi play based on the theme of a young girl marrying an old man. The right to choose one’s partner. It was pathbreaking. So is this real life ‘Sarada’ who changed so many lives!!
Does the name have that power or is it just coincidental?? Shakespeare may not agree, but there is something in the name! In HIndi we say, ‘Naam hi kafi hai!’ the name is enough. It is.
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