A Builder of Modern Paediatrics and Medical Standards: The Story of Dr. Shantilal Chhaganlal Sheth

(Note: The name is commonly recorded as Shantilal Chhaganlal Sheth; “Shah” appears to be a spelling variation of the same distinguished paediatrician and medical administrator.)

On 29 October 1912, in the sacred Jain town of Palitana in Gujarat, Shantilal Chhaganlal Sheth was born to Chhaganlal Narandas Sheth, an auditor. After schooling at Harris High School in Palitana, he studied medicine at Grant Medical College and the Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals in Mumbai, graduating MBBS in 1937.

Following residency he went to London, earning the Diploma in Child Health (DCH) from the Institute of Child Health in 1947 and the MRCP. He returned to India in 1948 and was appointed Honorary Director and Head of the Department of Paediatrics at Topiwala National Medical College and B.Y.L. Nair Hospital—one of the early full-fledged paediatric departments in the country. He also served as consulting paediatrician to Kasturba City Fever Hospital and Bhatia General Hospital.

Dr. Sheth was instrumental in unifying India’s paediatric community. He helped merge the Indian Paediatric Society and the Association of Paediatricians of India to create the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, serving as its General Secretary and later President. He was joint editor of the Indian Journal of Child Health and published extensively on nutrition, liver diseases and tropical infections.

His administrative leadership was equally significant. He served as President of the Indian Medical Association (1965–66) and, most notably, as President of the Medical Council of India for about a decade, shaping national standards of medical education and postgraduate training. He was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bombay and closely associated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bombay.

The Indian Navy conferred on him the honorary rank of Surgeon Commander, and he served as Honorary Physician to the President of India. In 1964 he became the first Asian paediatrician elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 1972 the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan for his contributions to medical education, research and care.

Married to Hiralaxmi, he had a son and a daughter. Dr. Shantilal Chhaganlal Sheth passed away on 24 January 1990. The Indian Academy of Paediatrics continues to honour him through the annual Dr. S. C. Sheth Oration. He remains remembered as a pioneering paediatrician, a unifier of the specialty, and a statesman of medical education who helped set the professional standards that still guide Indian medicine.