Dhanvanthi Rama Rau
Dhanvanthi Rama Rau, 1893, social worker. Wife of the late Sir Benegal Rama Rau, a diplomat, she started her career as a lecturer in English at a College in Madras. She was intensely interested in the welfare of women and children, and was the president of Family Planning Association of India from 1949 to 1963, and of the International Planned Parenthood Association, in 1963. She also worked for the abolition of child marriage, and to secure suffrage and equal citizenship for women. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1959.