The People's Doctor
Dr R. Kausalya Devi: A doctor by profession and social worker by choice. In 1969, 39-year-old Dr Kauslaya Devi came to Chinnalapatti, a small town on the Madurai Dindugul highway and met Dr T.S. Soundaram, a Gandhian activist who established Gandhigram and one of the earliest women doctors in the country. She was so impressed with the small rural hospital that "Soundaramma" was running that she decided to give up her secure government job and work in the hospital named after Mahatma Gandhi's wife, Kasturba. Now in her late seventies, Dr Kausalya Devi serves as the Managing Trustee for the Gandhigram Rural Trust, and as the Advisor to Kasturba Hospital. She is known simply as "Amma," (mother), and lives by the Gandhian philosophy that in order for India to progress, it must not forget the rural sector.
This tireless and self effacing doctor has headed the Kasturba Hospital for the past 40 years and still manages to work for fourteen hours a day, all with a smile on her face and a gentle energy alongside the committed staff of the 220-bed hospital. The 50-acre campus houses the Gandhigram Trust, which supports various allied institutions that work towards integrated rural development through social transformation.
In 1947, Dr T.S. Soundaram started the Kasturba Hospital as a two-bed clinic in a house in Chinnalapatti. Under the visionary leadership of Dr Soundaram, the hospital made several inroads into rural health and family welfare. When Dr Kauslaya Devi joined Gandhigram, she brought with her considerable clinical expertise that was much needed in a rural hospital. Being the only doctor in the hospital, the challenges were immense, as Dr Kausalya Devi was forced to take on the roles of a general surgeon and an orthopaedic surgeon, besides being an obstetrician and gynaecologist!
By the early 70s, Kasturba Hospital had expanded to 100 beds. Dr Kausalya Devi's coming to Gandhigram was an eye-opener for her, as until then she was used to a purely clinical approach to patient care. Gandhigram, she says, opened her eyes to the larger picture in rural health care. Central to the Gandhigram philosophy of health care was a community centric approach and the importance of responding to the needs of the community. "Soundaramma often used to tell us never to think that we know more than the community, we can only bring knowledge and information. Ultimately the community knows what they need and we must try to fulfill those needs," said Dr Kausalya Devi.
Our cover story and the companion piece on Kasturba Hospital seek to discover the person behind the doctor whose life and work is a song of compassionate service.
