In Gujarat, on 8 August 1941, a girl named Lata was born. She studied medicine at B.J. Medical College and, after marrying Dr. Anil Desai in 1968, the young couple travelled to the United States in 1972 for higher studies. Lata specialised in paediatrics; Anil in surgery. A comfortable life abroad was within reach. They chose a different path.

In 1980 they returned to India and, with a small group of friends, founded the Society for Education, Welfare and Action – Rural, known as SEWA Rural, in the tribal area of Jhagadia in Bharuch district. Their goal was simple and ambitious: to bring comprehensive health care, education and opportunity to communities that had long been left behind.

Lata focused on children and mothers. She walked the dusty paths of remote villages, treated malnourished infants, trained local women as health workers, and built systems that could continue even when the doctors were not present. Alongside medical care, SEWA Rural developed eye-care programmes, vocational training through the Vivekananda Gramin Tekniki Kendra, and initiatives for women’s empowerment and poverty alleviation.

One village woman, after her child recovered from a severe illness, told her, “Doctor ben, we had no hope until you came.”

Lata answered gently, “Hope is not something we bring from outside. It grows when people are given the tools to care for themselves. That is the real work.”

For more than four decades she and her husband remained in Jhagadia, living simply, expanding the reach of SEWA Rural, and proving that dedicated medical service could transform an entire region. In 2022 the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri for her distinguished contribution to medicine and her lifelong service to tribal communities.

Even today Dr. Lata Anilchandra Desai continues to guide the organisation she helped create. From the lecture halls of medical college and the opportunities of America to the tribal villages of South Gujarat, she has spent a lifetime turning skill and compassion into lasting change for those who needed it most.