Durgabai Deshmukh: The Mother of Social Work in India

At twelve she quit school to protest English-only teaching. At forty-four she chaired a national welfare board. Along the way she helped write the Constitution.

Durgabai Deshmukh turned a hard childhood into a lifetime of public work. She was a Gandhian volunteer, a lawyer and a founder of institutions. Her name is a favourite in exam questions on women in the freedom struggle.

1How did a child bride become a rebel?

Durgabai was born on 15 July 1909 in a Madhwa Brahmin family of Rajahmundry. She was married at eight years old to a man named Subba Rao. When she grew up, she refused to live with him.

Her father and her brother backed her decision. She then left to continue her studies. That choice was rare for a girl of her time and place.

At twelve, she left school in protest. The school had pushed English as the medium of teaching. She later began the Balika Hindi Paathshala in Rajahmundry to teach Hindi to girls.

Why does this early story matter? It shows two habits that never left her. She questioned rules that did not fit her people. Then she built something of her own in place of what she rejected.

• Born 15 July 1909 at Rajahmundry.
• Married at eight; she refused to live with her husband later.
• Left school at twelve against English-medium teaching.
• Started the Balika Hindi Paathshala for girls.

2What did she do in the freedom movement?

In 1923 the Congress met at Kakinada. Young Durgabai volunteered there. She was put in charge of a khadi exhibition that ran beside the session.

Her job was to keep out anyone without a ticket. The story goes that she stopped Jawaharlal Nehru at the gate. She let him in only after the organisers bought him a ticket. Nehru is said to have praised her courage.

She followed Gandhi and lived simply. She wore no jewellery and no cosmetics. In the Civil Disobedience Movement she took part in the Salt Satyagraha and helped organise women satyagrahis.

The British jailed her three times between 1930 and 1933. After her release she went back to her books. She finished a B.A. and an M.A. in political science at Andhra University. In 1942 she took a law degree at Madras University and began practice in the Madras High Court.

Why does the jail record matter? It shows that women were not only helpers in the movement. Many, like Durgabai, planned and led local campaigns.

• Volunteer at the 1923 Kakinada Congress; ran the khadi exhibition gate.
• Joined the Salt Satyagraha; organised women satyagrahis.
• Jailed three times, 1930 to 1933.
• Law degree from Madras University, 1942.
• Read about the Salt March.

3What did she do in the Constituent Assembly?

Durgabai was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the Madras Province. She was the only woman in the panel of chairmen. That meant she sometimes presided over the debates.

She also spoke on the national language. She proposed Hindustani, a blend of Hindi and Urdu. She feared that a forceful push for Hindi would hurt feelings in South India.

So she suggested fifteen years of status quo. During that time, people who did not speak Hindi could learn it at their own pace. The later row over Hindi shows how real her worry was.

She was also instrumental in many social welfare laws. Her Assembly work sat naturally beside her welfare work outside it.

Why was her seat on the panel special? Chairing is a position of trust. It showed that fellow members respected her fairness, in a house with very few women.

• Member from the Madras Province.
• The only woman in the panel of chairmen.
• Asked for fifteen years of status quo on Hindi.
• Read about the Drafting Committee and the language debate.

4Why is she called the mother of social work?

Durgabai lost the 1952 election to Parliament. She was later nominated to the Planning Commission. There she pushed for a national policy on social welfare.

That effort led to the Central Social Welfare Board in 1953. She became its first chairperson. She drew many voluntary groups into its programmes for education, training and rehabilitation.

The Board’s targets were needy women, children and the disabled. In short, it gave the state a way to fund and guide charity work across the country.

In 1953 she also visited China. She studied how family disputes were handled there. She came back convinced that India needed separate Family Courts. She discussed the idea with Justice M.C. Chagla, Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar and Nehru.

The Family Courts Act came in 1984. By then she had died. So the idea was hers, but the law is not.

Why did she focus on the courts? Women in family disputes often waited years for justice. A special court, she argued, could act faster and with more care.

• Nominated to the Planning Commission after losing in 1952.
• First chair of the Central Social Welfare Board, 1953.
• Urged Family Courts after a China visit in 1953.
• Family Courts Act: 1984, after her death.

5What else did she build?

Her best-known organisation is the Andhra Mahila Sabha, founded in 1937. A few sources say 1938. The Sabha trains and educates women and still works in South India.

She headed the Blind Relief Association. Under her, it set up a school with a hostel and a light engineering workshop for blind people. She also founded the Andhra Education Society in Delhi in 1948, for Telugu children living there.

In 1958 she became the first chair of the National Council on Women’s Education. Its 1959 report asked governments to give priority to girls’ schooling. It wanted free education for girls up to Class VIII and more seats for them in services.

In 1953 she married C.D. Deshmukh, the first Indian governor of the Reserve Bank and later Finance Minister. Nehru was one of the three witnesses, by her own account. Her autobiography, Chintaman and I, came out a year before she died on 9 May 1981.

Her honours include the Paul G. Hoffman Award, the Nehru Literacy Award, a UNESCO award for literacy work and the Padma Vibhushan. Andhra University named its women’s studies centre after her.

• Andhra Mahila Sabha, 1937.
• First chair of the National Council on Women’s Education, 1958.
• Married C.D. Deshmukh in 1953.
• Autobiography: Chintaman and I.
• Read about Renuka Ray and Ammu Swaminathan.

6What are the exam traps?

• She was the only woman in the panel of chairmen, not the only woman in the Assembly.
• The Family Courts Act is 1984; she died in 1981.
• She married C.D. Deshmukh in 1953, not before the movement.
• Her first marriage was a child marriage that she refused to continue.