Dr. Jerusha Jhirad
The pioneering obstetrician who realised a childhood dream and transformed women’s health in India

Jerusha Jacob Jhirad was born on 21 March 1891 in Shivamogga, Karnataka, into the Bene Israel Jewish community. As a child of eleven she watched her sister recover from a serious illness under the care of a woman doctor at Bombay’s Cama Hospital. In that moment she formed a clear resolve: she would become a doctor, earn a London MD, and one day take charge of the Cama Hospital herself.

She studied on merit scholarships, graduated LMS from Grant Medical College, Bombay, in 1912, and became the first Indian woman to receive a government scholarship to study medicine abroad. In London she trained at the London School of Medicine for Women, qualified MB BS of the University of London in 1917, and in 1919 obtained the MD in Midwifery and Diseases of Women — the first Indian woman to achieve that distinction. During the First World War she worked as house surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and at a maternity hospital in Birmingham.

Returning to India, she served briefly in Delhi and Bangalore before joining Cama Hospital in Bombay as an honorary surgeon in 1925. In 1928 she was appointed Medical Officer-in-Charge — the first Indian to hold the post previously reserved for British women. She remained there until her retirement in 1947, steadily improving prenatal, obstetric and postnatal care and reducing maternal mortality through careful clinical practice and advocacy.

She was a founder member of the Bombay Obstetric and Gynaecological Society and later its president. She became the first president of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) and served for many years as editor of its journal. In 1947 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The British government had already awarded her the MBE in 1945; in 1966 independent India conferred the Padma Shri.

Colleagues and students remembered a woman of quiet determination and deep kindness. One young doctor, watching her reassure an anxious expectant mother, later recalled Jhirad saying softly:

“A woman’s strength is never measured only by the pain she endures. It is measured by the care we give her so that she may rise again.”

Jerusha Jhirad died on 2 June 1984. A crater on Venus bears her name. In the story of Indian doctors she stands as a trailblazer who opened doors for women in medicine, raised the standards of obstetric care, and proved that a childhood dream, pursued with courage and scholarship, could change the lives of countless mothers and children.