Dr. Krishnaswami Srinivas Sanjivi
(Padma Shri 1971, Padma Bhushan 1976 – Medicine)

In post-Independence Madras, when quality healthcare remained out of reach for most ordinary families, one physician chose to step away from a distinguished government career and build something new. Dr. Krishnaswami Srinivas Sanjivi—known simply as K.S. Sanjivi—became the architect of a model that many later called the foundation of primary healthcare in India.

Born in 1903 in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, he graduated MBBS from Madras Medical College in 1927 and earned his MD in General Medicine in 1932—one of the first four to do so from the institution. He rose steadily through the Madras Medical Service: Director of Tuberculosis for the Presidency, Professor of Medicine at Stanley Medical College and later Madras Medical College, and First Physician at the Government General Hospital. In 1947 he trained in chest diseases at Brompton Hospital, London.

In 1957, when his claim to the post of Director of Medical Services was overlooked, he took voluntary retirement rather than continue in a system he felt could not fully serve the poor. Declining an offer of a professorship at AIIMS Delhi and refusing private practice, he founded the Voluntary Health Services (VHS) in 1958 as a non-profit organisation. With support from friends and civic leaders, the foundation stone of the hospital at Taramani was laid by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961. The first patients were admitted in 1963. The model was radical for its time: families contributed a small percentage of their income, received preventive care and free or highly subsidised treatment, and the hospital deliberately served the lower and middle classes.

Colleagues recalled a man of quiet determination and deep compassion. One young doctor, uncertain whether such an idealistic venture could survive, asked him how he remained confident.
Sanjivi answered simply, “Health is not a privilege for the few. If we organise it with honesty and community participation, even the poorest can receive the best care. That is the only medicine worth practising.”

He published extensively, wrote books in English and Tamil, and continued guiding VHS until his later years. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 1971 and the Padma Bhushan in 1976, along with the Dr. B.C. Roy Award for socio-medical relief the same year.

Dr. K.S. Sanjivi passed away in 1994. The Voluntary Health Services hospital he founded still stands in Chennai, continuing to treat a large proportion of its patients free of cost—a living embodiment of his belief that medicine must serve society with both skill and justice.