Lady Dufferin and the Women of India.
HE National Association for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of India owes its origin to a wish on the part of Her Majesty the Queen-Empress to ameliorate the condition of the native women of India; and when Her Excellency, the Countess of Dufferin and Ava, before her departure for India, took leave of Her Majesty, the matter was discussed and left in Lady Dufferin's hands. To better hands it could not have been entrusted, and this noble lady adopted every means of ascertaining in what direction, and by what means, the wishes of Her Majesty could most effectually be carried out.
The universal want of skilled medical aid for native women, whom male physicians are not permitted to attend, presented itself as the desired avenue. The ablest statesman would have been appalled, and the most ardent philanthropist would have hesitated, before an undertaking so vast as one that had for its object providing for the physical well-being of 100,000,000 women. Where was the wherewithal to come from, and how were the ignorance, superstition, and the prejudices of caste to be overcome? The "Where " and the "How" were carefully considered, formidable obstacles overcome, and the experiment made: how well it has succeeded I will try to show.
Lady Dufferin.
From a Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd, Calcutta.
The National Association for Supplying Medical Aid to the Women of India was founded in 1885. Her Majesty the Queen-Empress was its patron, the Governors and Lieutenant-Governors were vice-patrons. Life councillors, life members, and ordinary members were to be enrolled according to the amount of their donations. The general affairs of the Association were to be managed by a central committee, and efforts were to be made to establish branches throughout the country. The money subscribed to the National Association was to be called the "Countess of Dufferin's Fund."
Early in the year five and a half lakhs of rupees were invested as an endowment fund, and the society was registered. By permission of the Home Department of the Government of India, the Surgeon-General aids the society in the selection of the most suitable women for medical services, and they are grouped as follows:—
(1) Lady doctors registered under the Medical Acts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or possessing such certificates as would entitle them to such registration.
(2) Female assistant surgeons.
(3) Female hospital assistants.
The women, receiving a little more pay than men, in the same grades in the Government Medical Services, because they will have no pension, nor a regularly increasing salary. The lady doctors who are brought from England receive, in addition to their passage and an allowance for outfit, Rs. 300
