Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi founded by a visionary Lady, wife of Viceroy Lord Hardinge

Sarkari Naukri Samachar Sarkari Naukri Samachar

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Lady Hardinge Medical College is a medical college for women.  Funded by the Government of India, it is one of the selected medical colleges globally meant exclusively for women. 

Under the colonial rule when the national capital of India was shiftedfrom Calcutta  to Delhi in 1912, it dawned upon Lady Hardinge, the wife of the then Viceroy of India, Baron Charles Hardinge, to establish a medical college  and a hospital exclusively for women, as she recognized that  there was lack of such a college  where women could devout themselves to medical education  taught by women professionals to attend on women patients and further, she noticed,  very few women wanted to specialize in this profession that was dominated by men. Women with  gynaecological problems, etc had to approach male doctors for treatment  with reservation as  they were not at ease with them. It was proposed to have an institution to train women as nurses attached to the medical college as well as to the hospital.  The foundation stone was laid by Lady Hardinge on 17 March 1914, a few days before her departure for England where she died on 11 July 1914.  The college was named Queen Mary College & Hospital to commemorate the visit by Queen Mary in 1911-12.  The credit goes to Lady Hardinge , who herself was actively involved in collecting funds for the college from the princely states and the public. As for the Nursing College, the foundation stone was laid by lady Chelmford in Feb. 1916. Believed to the oldest nursing schools in Delhi, the services began with two English sisters. Now the college takes 60 plus students for various nursing courses.

Lady Hardinge Medical College Delhi, Emblem
Admission Jankari

The college was inaugurated on 7 February 1916 by Baron Hardinge in the Imperial Delhi Enclave area. He was quite emotional about his departed beloved wife and personally appealed to the senior officials and the affluent to come forward and make donation for the medical college  to fulfil Lady Hardinge's lofty ideals. On the suggestion of Queen Mary, the college and the hospital was named after Lady Hardinge. a lasting tribute to the  memory of its founder and her far-sighted vision. The first principal was Dr. Kate Platt and the college admitted 16 students. As the college was then affiliated to University of the Punjab, the students had to  go to go to  King Edward Medical College  for their final exams in Lahore. The college became affiliated to the University of Delhi in 1950 and post-graduate courses were started in 1954. Dr. Ruth Young CBE, who as Ruth Wilson was the first Professor of Surgery at the College, served as Principal from 1936 until 1940, In 1956 came up The Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital, one of the two hospitals attached to the Lady Hardinge Medical College.

In the beginning the medical college could take only 16 women students  and the MBBS courses lasted 7 long years. In the 1970s the institution admitted 100 to 130 students, presently it is around 200.  Initially, the college was an autonomous institution managed by a Governing Body. In the year 1953, the Board of Administration constituted by the Central Government took formal charge of the management of the institution. In February 1978, the management was taken over by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India under an Act of Parliament. One of the director professors is chosen as the president of the college, the most senior post in the college

The hospital has provided services to male patients since 1991.  Smt. Sucheta Kriplani Hospital and Kalawati Saran Child Hospital, have a capacity of 877 and 350 beds respectively. The college's Department of Microbiology is internationally well-known for its salmonella phage typing, and it is a World Health Organization collaborating centre for reference and training in streptococcal diseases for South East Asia  It is also a surveillance center for AIDS.

The vision of Lady Hardinge was as follows:  ''India's must pressing problem at present was  to secure a healthy and happy population. I regard this college as a pioneer institution which would ultimately lead to the wide diffusion of medical and sanitary knowledge by training Indian women of the proper class as doctors, health officers and nurses''.

 The graduates from this institution are serving not only in India but also overseas. The college has a vast collection of books on medicine and related stuff. This college is 102 years old. Lady Hardinge was a true visionary. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Hardinge_Medical_College
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