Remembering Mary Poonen Lukose, India's First Woman Surgeon General

Mary Poonen Lukose overcame gender barriers in higher education to graduate from the University of London with an MBBS in 1915 as India's first female medical graduate.

Returning to Travancore in 1916, she performed early procedures including Caesarean sections and initiated midwifery training programs to improve maternal care.

Appointed Surgeon General in 1938, she administered 32 government hospitals, founded a tuberculosis sanatorium, and became the State's first woman legislator in 1922.