Sushila Nayyar

Sir, - Ms. Kalpana Sharma's tribute to Dr. Sushila Nayyar (``Where are all the women?'' - The Hindu, January 14) with her photograph triggered my feelings also to share my acquaintance with Sushila Nayyar who was Gandhiji's personal physician in Wardha and Yerwada jail.

Sushila Nayyar and Soundaram Ramachandran were close friends and class mates at the Lady Irwin Medical College, New Delhi. At the instance of Gandhiji they dedicated their medical education to village health care around Wardha. Later they were Ministers for Health and Rural Development respectively in Pandit Nehru's Cabinet along with Lakshmi Menon in the Defence Ministry.

Sushila Nayyar and Soundaram had a life-long passion for the health of women and children strongly advocating small size family norm through education and motivation especially of rural mothers. Gandhigram pioneered rural health services involving the interested and influential village leaders. As a team member of the Ford Foundation project on community based health services I had the privilege of taking Sushila Nayyar in 1962 on a study tour of the demonstration villages in Athoor block. She was so impressed with the success of the Gandhigram project that she introduced it as ``Athoor Experiences'' in the Ministry of Health for nationwide adoption which became the forerunner of today's primary health care.

Two events are etched in my memory of Sushila Nayyar. One is her visit to Murugampatti, a harijan village, where it became a coincidence for her to assist a novice midwife in attending to the labour pains of a woman in home delivery. She invited me to the Ministry of Health to present the salient features of the Athoor Experiences which gave me the Ford Foundation scholarship at the University of California.

R. Varadarajan,

Gandhi Ashram, Tiruchengodu

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