Anandi Joshee was the first Indian woman who became a doctor. This was in 1886 – 130 years ago. Her story is one of triumph over unimaginable obstacles and hardships, ranging from lack of schools for girls to fierce community opposition to her pursuit of an education. One of the striking aspects of her story is that she was married at the age of nine to her husband, Gopal, who was seventeen years older than her. Such early marriage, and such enormous differences in age were the norm in India at that time.
The status of Indian women has improved exponentially over the last 130 years. Not only are there plenty of schools for girls, girls’ education is free in the more progressive states of western India. Today, Indian women are doctors and engineers, pilots, journalists and corporate officials. They can choose whom to marry, how, and when. They have a say in when and how many children they will have, and so on. And yet….
India is also the country where, as of 2016, fully 47% of girls are married before the age of 18. The photos in the Child Bride Campaign of educategirls.in are simply heartbreaking.
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When I started working on this book, my motivations were to tell a fascinating story of many firsts and to honor the woman was was a fore-mother to today’s empowered Indian women.
When I come across statistics like the ones above, I cannot help but hope that telling this story will serve another, possibly more important, purpose: it will offer a home-grown example of a girl who was no better off than the child brides of today, and who managed, despite those disadvantages, to achieve something truly remarkable.
In a letter that Gopal wrote to an American missionary seeking help to educate his wife, he stated that the purpose of educating her was so she might help her “country sisters” (desh bhagini) who lacked access to education as well as health care. If the focus on Anandi’s story makes even a small impact, she will be reaching out and helping her country-sisters long after she left this world.