Kadambini Ganguly ,Do you know the first female doctor from India? Practising medicine in India being a girl is one of the most courageous things a girl could afford! She was a fire that could not be extinguished under robust hurdles. She paved a way for many young girls to dream big about their life. She is Kadambini Ganguly! She is the first female doctor from India. She hails from Bengal. She belonged to a Brahmo family or to be more precise her father was a member of Brahmo samaj. Her mother on the other hand was strictly against Brahmo Samaj and female education at first.
Since her childhood, she has been a headstrong and courageous young girl who had no mission other than succeeding in life. Her father supported her dreams and she was educated in schools and colleges. She received English education at a time when girls of her age were forced into a marriage they never wanted to pursue!
She was the first woman who passed the entrance exam for Calcutta University. Since her childhood the fact that the lack of female doctors in India made it difficult for women in orthodox households to find a cure to their diseases made her worry about the destiny of women who mostly died without any treatment. She pledged to be a doctor herself and change the course of destiny forced upon women.
Life was not that easy but she sailed it through with her sheer determination and visceral strength! She married Dwarakanath Ganguly, a member of Brahmo Samaj and a revolutionary activist and freedom fighter. The couple were blessed with 8 children. Family life did not thwart her dreams and she became more determined to succeed. He tried to restore the renaissance in Bengal and supported her wife’s dreams of pursuing medicine.
Kadambini Ganguly was harassed in many ways by her colleagues and other people who could not digest the fact that a woman can be a successful doctor! She was hurled with terrible insults at her and was deliberately made to fail by her teacher in a particular subject. She later went to Scotland for her higher studies and returned here to practice medicine. She is an exemplary woman who paved the road of success for many girls who derived massive strength from her story of success.
