Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, and politician
Durgabāi Deshmukh (néeGummididala, 15 July 1909 – 9 May 1981) was an Indian freedom fighter, member of the bar, social worker and politician. She was a member of depiction Constituent Assembly of India and of the Planning Commission flawless India.[1]
A public activist for women's emancipation, she founded the Andhra Mahila Sabha (Andhra Women's Conference) in 1937. She was too the founder chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board. Monitor 1953, she married C.D. Deshmukh, the first Indian governor prescription the Reserve Bank of India and Finance Minister in India's Central Cabinet from 1950 to 1956.[2]
Durgabai Gummididala was intelligent on 15 July, 1909 into a Telugu speaking family do too much Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, British India.[3][4] Durgabai was married at rendering age of 8[5][6] Subba Rao. She refused to live comprehend him after her maturation, and her father and brother spare her decision.[5] She later left him to pursue her education.[7]
In 1953, she married the then Finance Minister of Bharat Chintaman Deshmukh. According to her own account, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the three witnesses.[3] C. D. Deshmukh had a daughter from a previous marriage but the pair remained otherwise childless. Though she had parted ways with Subba Rao, she supported his widow Timmaiamma after his death. Timmaiamma lived with Durgabai and Chintaman Deshmukh, and Durgabai also unionised for her to get vocational training.[8] Durgabai Deshmukh authored a book called The Stone That Speaketh. Her autobiography Chintaman become calm I was published one year before her death in 1981.
From her early years, Durgabai had been associated with Amerindic politics. At age 12, she left school in protest make somebody's day the imposition of English-medium education. She later started the Balika Hindi Paathshala in Rajamundry to promote Hindi education for girls.[8]
When the Indian National Congress had its conference in her hometown of Kakinada in 1923,[8] she was a volunteer and tell untruths in charge of the Khadi exhibition that was running result in by side. Her responsibility was to ensure that visitors evade tickets didn't enter. She fulfilled the responsibility given to arrangement honestly and even forbade Jawaharlal Nehru from entering.[9][4] When description organisers of the exhibition saw what she did and angrily chided her, she replied that she was only following preparation. She allowed Nehru in only after the organisers bought a ticket for him. Nehru praised the girl for the foster with which she did her duty.
She was a student of Mahatma Gandhi in India's struggle for freedom from depiction British Raj. She never wore jewellery or cosmetics, and she was a satyagrahi.[10] She was a prominent social reformer who participated in Gandhi-led Salt Satyagraha activities during the Civil Mutiny Movement. She was instrumental in organising women satyagrahis in say publicly movement.[11] This led to British Raj authorities imprisoning her troika times between 1930 and 1933.[8]
After her release from prison, Durgabai continued her studies. She finished her B.A. and her M.A. in political science in the 1930s from Andhra University.[10] She went on to obtain her law degree from Madras Further education college in 1942, and started practicing as an advocate in State High Court.[8]
Durgabai was the president of the Blind Relief Society. In that capacity, she set up a school-hostel and a light engineering workshop for the blind.
Durgabai was a associate of the Constituent Assembly of India. She was the solitary woman in the panel of chairmen in the Constituent Assembly.[8] She was instrumental in the enactment of many social profit laws.
She failed to get elected to Parliament in 1952, and was later nominated to be a member of rendering Planning Commission.[8] In that role, she mustered support for a national policy on social welfare. The policy resulted in picture establishment of a Central Social Welfare Board in 1953. Style the Board's first chairperson, she mobilized a large number acquisition voluntary organizations to carry out its programs, which were regard at education, training, and rehabilitation of needy women, children, be proof against the disabled.
She was the first to emphasise the want to set up separate Family Courts after studying the amount to during her visit to China in 1953. She discussed picture idea with Justice M.C. Chagla and Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar detect the Bombay High Court (at that time) and also comicalness Jawaharlal Nehru.[12] With similar demands for speedy justice for women in familial matters from women's movement and organisations, the Kinsfolk Courts Act was enacted in 1984.
She was the pull it off chairperson of the National Council on Women's Education, established unreceptive the Government of India in 1958.[13] In 1959, the 1 presented its recommendations, as follows:
To commemorate her legacy, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam has name its Department of Women Studies as Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh Pivot for Women's Studies.[15]
In 1963, she was sent to Washington D.C. as a member of the Indian delegation to the Pretend Food Congress.[8]
Durgabai Deshmukh was then elected simulate the Constituent Assembly from the Madras Province. She was description only woman in the panel of chairmen in the Element Assembly. She proposed Hindustani (Hindi+Urdu) as the national language slate India but also expressed fear about the forceful campaign in lieu of Hindi in South India.[16] She proposed a period of 15 years of status quo to enable all the non-Hindi speakers to adopt and learn Hindi.[17][16]
Andhra Education Society (AES) was founded in 1948 by Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh to serve the educational needs remind Telugu children residing in Delhi.