5 January 1900
Mount Holly, New Jersey
Occupational therapist, educator
Kamala Vishnu Nimbkar (January 5, 1900 – August 29, 1979), born Elizabeth Lundy, was an American-born occupational therapist in India.
Early life
Elizabeth Lundy was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey the daughter of Joseph Wilmer Lundy and Bessie Morris Roberts Lundy. Her father was a Quaker businessman.[1] She attended the Quaker George School, and earned a bachelor's degree in economics at Barnard College in 1926.[2] She returned to the United States later in her forties, to study occupational therapy at the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy.[3][4]
Career
Before college, Lundy worked as a secretary on a statistical study of coal miners, for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines.[5] In India after she married, Nimbkar taught kindergarten by the Froebel method, and started several schools in that tradition.[6] She is credited as founding the first school for occupational therapy (OT) in India in 1948, when she started the OT department at KEM Hospital.[7][8] In 1958 she founded a second school for OT in Nagpur. She was also founder of the All India Occupational Therapists Association (AIOTA) in 1952, and served as the association's president until 1959.[3][9] In 1960 she founded the Indian Society for the Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, and was its secretary-general until the 1970s.[10]
In 1957 she represented India at an international conference on rehabilitation, held in Indonesia.[10] She visited Baltimore therapy programs in 1959.[11] In 1965, she attended a reunion of patients and therapists from the Toomey Pavilion, a respiratory clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, hosted by Gini Laurie.[12] At a conference in Australia in 1972, she was honored with the Lasker Award by the International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled.[6][13][14]
She edited and published AIOTA's journal, Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy from 1955, and The Journal of Rehabilitation in Asia from 1959.[10] She also wrote articles for other scholarly journals.[15] Her book, A New Life for the Handicapped: A History of Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy in India, was published posthumously in 1980.[16]
She talked about her life and work in an oral interview given to University of Cambridge[17]
Personal life
Lundy met her husband Vishnu Nimbkar, an Indian businessman, in New York, converted to Hinduism, and moved with him to India in 1930.[18] She lived at the Sabarmati Ashram, the residence of Mahatma Gandhi, for several months upon arrival. She died in 1979, aged 79 years, in India.[19] Some of her letters are in her father's papers at Swarthmore College.[1] Her son was B. V. Nimbkar,[6] and one of her granddaughters is Nandini Nimbkar, both noted agricultural scientists. A secular, Marathi medium school in Phaltan, Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan, is named after her.[20]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 An Inventory of the J. Wilmer Lundy Family Papers, 1781-1964, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
- ↑ Barnard College Alumnae Bibliography (2009): 90.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Occupational Therapy: An Indian Historical Perspective. AIOTA. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ PTA Hears Guest Speaker. The Ithaca Journal(1947-10-23). Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ Honor Casteless School Innovator. Barnard Bulletin(1959-04-30). Retrieved 2020-07-19.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Love Affair with India. St. Louis Post-Dispatch(1972-09-25). Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ Occupational Therapy School and Center. King Edward Memorial Hospital. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ Muncie Girl to Aid in Opening School in India. Muncie Evening Press(1948-10-25). Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy: About us. The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Sullivan, Timy. "Mrs. Kamala V. Nimbkar: Editor, The Journal of Rehabilitation in Asia" Rehabilitation Gazette 15(1972): 33.
- ↑ Indian Therapist Makes Study Here. The Baltimore Sun(1959-04-17). Retrieved 2020-07-19.
- ↑ Toomey Reunion... 1965. Toomey J. Gazette({Template:Date).
- ↑ Historical Awards. The Lasker Foundation. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ 3 Will Receive Lasker Prizes. Daily News(1972-08-27). Retrieved 2020-07-19.
- ↑ Training Of Occupational Therapists For Work In The Psychiatric Field. Indian Journal of Psychiatry({Template:Date).
- ↑ A New Life for the Handicapped: A History of Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy in India{{#if:Nimbkar|, Nimbkar}. Nimbkar Rehabilitation Trust(1980)
- ↑ Interview: Mrs. Kamala V. Nimbkar. Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ Interview: Mrs. Kamala V. Nimbkar. Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
- ↑ Class Notes. Barnard Alumnae Magazine({Template:Date).
- ↑ Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan. Pragat Shikshan Sanstha. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
External links
- "Indian Occupations Captured: A tribute to Mrs Kamala Nimbkar" Let's OT (July 11, 2011), a blog post about Nimbkar, with photographs.