Dr. Rakhmabai Challenging the Court on the Status of Women

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. She went on to study in the London school of Medicine for Women in 1889. When she came back to India to work in a hospital in 1894, she became India’s first practicing lady doctor.

When Rakhmabai was still in school, her husband, Dadaji, insisted that Rakhmabai come and live with him in his house. Rakhmabai, not one to blindly follow convention, refused.

Dadaji soon filed a petition in the court of law. Early In 1884, one of India’s most influential and publicized trials began. After Rakhmabai refused to stay with her husband, the court gave her two options – to either comply or face imprisonment. Rakhmabai told the court that she would rather go to jail than live with Dadaji. The case sparked debates on the age of consent for marriage when Rakhmbai refused to obey.

Behramji Malabari and Pandita Ramabai came to her defense and formed the Rakhmabai Defense Committee. The case spanned 4 years until Dadaji was “compensated” in 1888, outside of court.

The case was instrumental in the drafting of the Age of Consent Act in 1891.