Marriage of Dr. Rakhmabai to Dadaji Bhikaji

Rakhmabai Raut was born to Jayantibai and Janardhan on November 22, 1864. When her father passed away, her mother married Sakharam Arjun, a professor at the Grand Medical College in Bombay. Owing to social norms that existed at that time, Rakhmabai got married at 11-years of age to the 19-year old Dadaji Bhikaji. As was convention at the time, she stayed at her parents house, this was the time she spent in educating herself under the guidance of her stepfather.

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.