DURGABAI DESHMUKH

 

Participation in India's freedom movement

From an early life Durgabai was associated with Indian politics. When the Indian National Congress had its conference in her hometown of Rajahmundry in 1923, she was a volunteer and placed in charge of the Khadi exhibition that was running side by side. Her responsibility was to ensure that visitors to were not allowed without tickets. She fulfilled the responsibility given to her honestly and even forbade Jawaharlal Nehru from entering.
 When the organizers of the exhibition saw what she did and angrily chided her, she replied that she was only following instructions. She allowed Nehru in only after the organizers bought a ticket for him. Nehru praised the girl for the courage with which she did her duty.
 She was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi in India's struggle for freedom from the British Raj and a prominent social reformer who participated in Gandhi-led Satyagraha activities. This led to British Raj authorities imprisoning her three times.
Durgabai was the president of the Blind Relief Association. In that capacity, she set up a school-hostel and a light engineering workshop for the blind.
She authored a book in Telugu called Matlade rallu, meaning stones that speak.
Durugabai was a member of India's Lok Sabha. She was instrumental in the enactment of many social welfare laws. She was a member of the Planning Commission. In that role, she mustered support for a national policy on social welfare.
The policy resulted in the establishment of a Central Social Welfare Board in 1953. As the Board's first chairperson, she mobilized a large number of voluntary organizations to carry out its programs, which were aimed at education, training, and rehabilitation of needy women, children, and the handicapped. She was the first chairperson of the National Council on Women's Education, established by the Government of India in 1958. To commemorate her legacy Andhra University, Visakhapatnam has named its Department of Women Studies as Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh Centre for Women's Studies.