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{{Short description|Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, and politician}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Durgabai Deshmukh
| image =Durgabai Deshmukh 1982 stamp of India.jpg
| caption = Deshmukkh on a 1982 Indian stamp
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1909|07|15}}
| birth_place = [[Rajahmundry]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]] (now [[Andhra Pradesh]], India)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1981|05|09|1909|07|15}}
| death_place = [[Narasannapeta, Andhra Pradesh]], India
| alma_mater =[[Madras University]]
| spouse = {{marriage| [[C.D. Deshmukh]]|1953}}
| children =
| awards = {{nowrap|[[Padma Vibhushan]]}}
}}

'''Durgābāi Deshmukh, Lady Deshmukh''' (15 July 1909 – 9 May 1981) was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social worker and politician. She was a member of the [[Constituent Assembly of India]] and of the [[Planning Commission of India]].

A public activist for women's emancipation, she founded the Andhra Mahila Sabha (Andhra Women's Conference) in 1937. She was also the founder chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board. In 1953, she married [[C.D. Deshmukh]], the first Indian governor of the [[Reserve Bank of India]] and [[Finance Minister]] in India's Central Cabinet from 1950 to 1956.

== Career ==
[[File:Durgabai deshmukh.jpg|thumb|Bust of Durgabai Deshmukh in [[Rajahmundry]]]]
From her early years, Durgabai had been associated with Indian politics. At age 12, she left school in protest to the imposition of English-medium education. She later started the Balika Hindi Paathshala in [[Rajahmundry|Rajamundry]] to promote Hindi education for girls.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&pg=RA1-PA42|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History: 4 Volume Set|last=Smith|first=Bonnie G.|date=2008-01-01|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=9780195148909}}</ref>

When the [[Indian National Congress]] had its conference in her hometown of [[Kakinada]] in 1923,<ref name=":0" /> she was a volunteer and placed in charge of the [[Khadi]] exhibition that was running side by side. Her responsibility was to ensure that visitors without tickets didn't enter. She fulfilled the responsibility given to her honestly and even forbade [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] from entering.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030821122652/http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/11/04/stories/2002110401330200.htm Dedicated to cause of women], ''The Hindu''. 4 November 2002</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhC2IQ53uQ8C&pg=PA127|title=Women's Movement|last=Suguna|first=B.|date=2009|publisher=Discovery Publishing House|isbn=9788183564250|page=127}}</ref> When the organisers of the exhibition saw what she did and angrily chided her, she replied that she was only following instructions. She allowed Nehru in only after the organisers bought a ticket for him. Nehru praised the girl for the courage with which she did her duty.

She was a follower of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] in India's struggle for freedom from the [[British Raj]]. She never wore jewellery or cosmetics, and she was a satyagrahi.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eTrs9MF9374C&pg=PA133|page=133|title=The Great Indian Patriots|last=Rao|first=P. Rajeswar|date=1991|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=9788170992806}}</ref> She was a prominent social reformer who participated in Gandhi-led Salt [[Satyagraha]] activities during the [[Salt March|Civil Disobedience Movement]]. She was instrumental in organising women satyagrahis in the movement.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Z8OzIyGt0MC&pg=PA73|page=73|title=History of India (from National Movement To Present Day)|last=Jayapalan|first=N.|date=2001|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=9788171569175}}</ref> This led to British Raj authorities imprisoning her three times between 1930 and 1933.<ref name=":0" />

After her release from prison, Durgabai continued her studies. She finished her B.A. and her M.A. in political science in the 1930s from Andhra University.<ref name=":2" /> She went on to obtain her law degree from [[University of Madras|Madras University]] in 1942, and started practicing as an advocate in [[Madras High Court]].<ref name=":0" />

Durgabai was the president of the Blind Relief Association. In that capacity, she set up a school-hostel and a light engineering workshop for the blind.

Durgabai was a member of the [[Constituent Assembly of India]]. She was the only woman in the panel of chairmen in the Constituent Assembly.<ref name=":0" /> She was instrumental in the enactment of many social welfare laws.

She failed to get elected to Parliament in 1952, and was later nominated to be a member of the [[Planning Commission (India)|Planning Commission]].<ref name=":0" /> In that role, she mustered support for a national policy on social welfare. The policy resulted in the establishment of a Central Social Welfare Board in 1953. As the Board's first chairperson, she mobilized a large number of voluntary organizations to carry out its programs, which were aimed at education, training, and rehabilitation of needy women, children, and the handicapped.

She was the first to emphasise the need to set up separate Family Courts after studying the same during her visit to China in 1953. She discussed the idea with Justice M.C. Chagla and Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar of the Bombay High Court (at that time) and also with [[Jawaharlal Nehru]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://districts.ecourts.gov.in/maharashtra-family-courts|title=Maharashtra Family Courts|last=Government of India|first=e-courts Mission Mode Project|website=District Courts of India|access-date=24 June 2018}}</ref> With similar demands for speedy justice for women in familial matters from women's movement and organisations, the Family Courts Act was enacted in 1984.

She was the first chairperson of the National Council on Women's Education, established by the Government of India in 1958.<ref>{{cite book|last=Government of India|title=Report of the National Committee on Women's Education|year=1959|publisher=Government of India|location=New Delhi}}</ref> In 1959, the committee presented its recommendations, as follows:
# "The Centre and State Governments should give priority to the education of girls.
# In the central ministry of education, a department of women's education should be created.
# For proper education of girls, a Director of Women's Education should be appointed in each state.
# Co-education should be properly organised at higher level of education.
# The University Grants Commission should specify a definite amount separately for the education of girls.
# In the first phase of development, provision of free education should be made for girls up to Class VIII
# Facilities in the choice of optional subjects should be made available for girls.
# Girls should get training facilities on a liberal basis.
# Education of Girls should be given due encouragement in rural areas.
# A large number of seats in various services should be reserved for them.
# Programmes for the development of adult women's education should be properly initiated and encouraged."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5f6tBD8XGSUC&pg=PA47|page=47|title=Higher Education in India: Development and Problems|last=Deka|first=B.|date=2000-01-01|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=9788171569243}}</ref>

To commemorate her legacy, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam has named its Department of Women Studies as [[Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh Centre for Women's Studies]].<ref name="Durgabai Deshmukh centennial inaugurated">{{cite web | url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/durgabai-deshmukh-centennial-inaugurated/article231355.ece | title=Durgabai Deshmukh centennial inaugurated | work=The Hindu| date=16 July 2009 | access-date=3 July 2015}}</ref>

In 1963, she was sent to Washington D.C. as a member of the Indian delegation to the World Food Congress.<ref name=":0" />

== Contribution in Constituent Assembly ==
She was then elected to the Constituent Assembly from the Madras Province. She was the only woman in the panel of chairmen in the Constituent Assembly. She proposed Hindustani (Hindi+Urdu) as the national language of India but also expressed fear about the forceful campaign for Hindi in South India.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=http://cadindia.clpr.org.in/constitution_assembly_debates/volume/9/1949-09-14|title=Constituent Assembly of India Debates (Proceedings) - Volume IX|website=CADIndia {{!}} CLPR|access-date=2017-12-13}}</ref> She proposed a period of fifteen years of status quo to enable all the non-Hindi speakers to adopt and learn Hindi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cadindia.clpr.org.in/constituent_assembly_members|title=Constituent Assembly Members|website=cadindia.clpr.org.in|access-date=2017-12-13}}</ref><ref name=":4" />

== Personal life ==

Durgabai Deshmukh was born in Rajahmundry,<ref name="auto">{{cite book|last=Deshmukh |first=Durgabai |date=1980 |title=Chintaman and I |publisher=Allied |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.172432/page/n13 1] |quote=I was born on 15 July 1909 in Rajahmundry in the coastal district of East Godavari in Andhra |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.172432}}</ref> [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[British India]], in the Gummidithala family belonging to [[Brahmin]] community;<ref name=":1" /> Durgabai was married at the age of 8<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjilIrVt9hUC|title=Women in Modern India|last=Forbes|first=Geraldine|last2=Forbes|first2=Geraldine Hancock|date=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521653770}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.co.in/books?id=NZmyUpHdPWYC&pg=PA400 Woman, Her History and Her Struggle for Emancipation]</ref> to her cousin, Subba Rao. She refused to live with him after her maturation, and her father and brother supported her decision.<ref name=":3" /> She later left him to pursue her education.<ref>{{Cite book | author = Raman, Sita Anantha | title = Women in India: A Social and Cultural History | volume = 1 | pages = 165–166 | publisher = Praeger| year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-313-37710-5 }}</ref>

In 1953, she married the then Finance Minister of India [[Chintaman Deshmukh]]. According to her own account, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the three witnesses.<ref name="auto"/> C. D. Deshmukh had a daughter from a previous marriage but the couple remained otherwise childless. Though she had parted ways with Subba Rao, she supported his widow Timmaiamma after his death. Timmaiamma lived with Durgabai and Chintaman Deshmukh, and Durgabai also organised for her to get vocational training.<ref name=":0" />

Durgabai Deshmukh authored a book called ''The Stone That Speaketh''. Her autobiography ''Chintaman and I'' was published one year before her death in 1981.

She died in Narasannapeta, in Srikakulam district.

==Awards==
*Paul G Hoffman Award
*Nehru Literacy Award
*UNESCO Award (for outstanding work in the field of literacy)
*[[Padma Vibhushan]] award from the government of India
*Jeevan award and Jagadeesh award

==Organizations established by Durgabai==
* [[Andhra Mahila Sabha]]<ref>[http://www.andhramahilasabha.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717055254/http://www.andhramahilasabha.org/ |date=17 July 2007 }}</ref> in 1938.
* [http://csdindia.org Council for Social Development]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.csdindia.org/about-us|title=About Us – Council for social development|website=www.csdindia.org|access-date=2016-05-08|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120802090839/http://www.csdindia.org/about-us|archive-date=2 August 2012}}</ref>
* [[Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital]] in 1962.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090204184712/http://andhramahilasabha.org.in/DDHRC_Hyd.htm Educational Institutions in the Campus]. andhramahilasabha.org.in</ref>
* [[Sri Venkateswara College]], New Delhi

[[Andhra Education Society Sr. Sec School|Andhra Education Society (AES)]] was founded in 1948 by Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh to serve the educational needs of Telugu children residing in Delhi.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Durgabai Deshmukh}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110812174634/http://blogs.thehindu.com/delhi/?p=25977 Durgabai Deshmukh: A pioneer and a transformative leader], Prema Kasturi and Prema Srinivasan, [[The Hindu]].

{{Padma Vibhushan Awards}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deshmukh}}
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in social work]]
[[Category:1981 deaths]]
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:Members of the Constituent Assembly of India]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]]
[[Category:Politicians from Rajahmundry]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Women in Andhra Pradesh politics]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social workers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women politicians]]
[[Category:Women Indian independence activists]]
[[Category:Social workers from Andhra Pradesh]]

Durgabai Deshmukh - Revision history

UpdateBot at 01:01, 14 March 2022