Dr. Rakhmabai Graduating from the London School of Medicine

Dr. Rakhmabai Raut was a pioneer in the field of medicine and women’s rights in the 19th century. Her efforts to be granted the right to choose was instrumental in raising the age of consent for women in 1891.

Rakhmabai was finally free to pursue her education after her court cases had concluded. Under the guidance and support of Edith Pechey Phipson, the British director of the Cama Hospital in Bombay, Rakhmabai went to England to study in the London School of Medicine for Women in 1889. During the course of her education, she travelled to Glasgow, Brussels, and Edinburgh and obtained qualifications before graduating in 1894.

When she came back to India to work in a hospital in 1894, she became India’s first practicing lady doctor.