Speaker: Dr. V.R.Devika, Founder and Managing Trustee, The Aseema Trust, a non-profit organization for linking traditional performing arts and education as well as Mahatma Gandhi and education. A well-known storyteller, she is the author of Muthulakshmi Reddy: Trailblazer in Surgery and Women’s Rights (Niyogi Books)

Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy was born on 30th July 1886 in Pudukkottai to Chandrammal who belonged to the Devadasi system and Narayasami Iyer, a Brahmin teacher. She was the first Indian girl to complete MBBS at the Madras Medical college, First Indian member of the Women’s India Association and First woman member of Madras Legislative Assembly. She fought for stopping the wet nursing system, for raising the age of marriage for girls, for widows’ remarriage, for equal property rights for women, for equal voting rights and for abolishing the dedication of young girls as Devadasis. She founded Avvai Home and the Adyar Cancer Institute.

This illustrated talk explores her life in a story telling mode.