In the warm, bustling city of Raipur, on 25 August 1955, a girl named Alka was born to Ram Saran Das and Shakuntala Devi Malhotra. From an early age she watched the quiet strength of the women around her—mothers who carried both homes and hopes on their shoulders. Something stirred in her heart.

“I want to help women live healthier, fuller lives,” she told her parents one evening as a schoolgirl. “Medicine will be my way.”

She entered Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Medical College in Raipur and earned her MBBS, then her MD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1981. The operating theatre, the labour room, the anxious faces of young mothers—all of it felt like home. After a senior residency at Lady Hardinge Medical College and Smt. Sucheta Kriplani Hospital in Delhi, she joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. There she rose steadily—Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor—and eventually became Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She also served as Director In-charge of the WHO Collaborating Centre, Human Reproduction Research Centre and Family Planning unit.

Alka specialised in the delicate art of reproductive endocrinology and the precision of gynaecological endoscopy. She mastered minimally invasive surgery so that women could recover faster, with less pain and smaller scars. High-risk pregnancies, infertility, fetal medicine—she handled them all with the same calm focus.

One young couple sat across from her, eyes full of fear after years of failed attempts to conceive.

“Doctor, is there still hope?” the woman asked softly.

Alka leaned forward, her voice steady and kind. “Hope is never finished as long as we keep trying together. We will find the right path for you.”

She performed more than 42,000 complex procedures over her career. She trained generations of doctors through live workshops and endoscopy programmes at AIIMS. She delivered over 770 guest lectures across India and abroad, published more than 380 scientific papers, and authored four books. She became President of the Gynaecological Endocrine Society of India, led the Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Delhi, and held key roles in FOGSI. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London conferred on her the honorary FRCOG.

In 2007 the nation recognised her as an Eminent Medical Teacher with the Dr. B.C. Roy Award. In 2015 President Pranab Mukherjee presented her the Padma Shri for distinguished service in medicine.

Today, as Chairperson of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Paras Hospital in Gurugram, she continues to see patients, guide young doctors, and speak for women’s health. Married to Ajay Kumar Kriplani and mother to Divya and Isha, she balances the demands of a pioneering career with the quiet joys of family.

From a determined girl in Raipur to one of India’s most respected voices in women’s medicine, Dr. Alka Kriplani’s journey has been a steady, graceful commitment to healing, teaching, and empowering. In every life she has touched—every mother who walked out of her care stronger, every student who carries her lessons forward—her story continues.