Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose
(Padma Shri, 1975 – Medicine)

In the princely state of Travancore at the turn of the twentieth century, a young woman from Aymanam quietly rewrote what was possible for her gender and her profession. Born on 2 August 1886 as the only child of Dr. T.E. Poonen—the first medical graduate of Travancore—Mary Poonen grew up with both privilege and an uncommon determination. She became the first woman from Kerala to graduate (with a degree in History and Economics from Madras University in 1909). When Indian medical colleges still closed their doors to women, she sailed to England, earned her MBBS from the University of London, and trained in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, with further study in paediatrics.

She returned home in 1916 and was appointed to the newly established Women and Children’s Hospital in Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram—the first woman physician in government service in the region. In 1920 she performed the first Caesarean section in the state. In 1917 she married the lawyer K.K. Lukose, who later became a High Court judge. The same year she helped found the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of the Young Women’s Christian Association and served as its president for fifty years.

In 1922 (formally taking her seat in 1924) she was nominated to the Sree Chitra State Council, becoming the first woman legislator in Travancore and the first in any Indian princely state. Two years later she was appointed head of the medical department—Acting Surgeon General—and in 1938 she became the full Surgeon General of Travancore, overseeing dozens of hospitals and dispensaries. She is widely regarded as the first woman in the world to hold such a post. Under her leadership she founded a tuberculosis sanatorium in Nagercoil and an X-Ray and Radium Institute in Thiruvananthapuram, expanding both treatment and public-health infrastructure.

Colleagues and younger doctors remembered her quiet authority and deep sense of duty. One young midwife, nervous before her first complicated delivery, asked how Dr. Lukose remained so composed.
Mary answered gently, “A woman’s body has carried life this far. Our task is simply to help it finish the journey safely—with skill, respect and calm hands.”

She retired in the early 1940s. In 1975 the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri. Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose passed away on 2 October 1976 at the age of ninety. She left behind a trail of firsts—first woman graduate, first woman doctor, first woman legislator, first woman Surgeon General—and a lasting foundation for women’s healthcare and public health in Kerala.