Rukhmabai

Rukhmabai (22 November 1864 – 25 September 1955) was an Indian physician and feminist. She is best known for being one of the first practicing women doctors in colonial India (the first being Dr. Kadambini Ganguly who started practicing in 1886) as well as being involved in a landmark legal case involving her marriage as a child bride between 1884 and 1888. The case raised significant public debate across several topics, which most prominently included law vs tradition, social reform vs conservatism and feminism in both British-ruled India and England. This ultimately contributed to the Age of Consent Act in 1891.

==Early life== Rukhmabai was born to Janardhan Pandurang and Jayantibai in a Marathi family. Janardhan Pandurang died when Rukhmabai was aged between two and six years. After her husband's demise, Jayantibai married the widower Sakharam Arjun, an eminent physician and social activist in Bombay. Remarriage of widows was permitted among the Suthar (carpenter) community - the caste to which Rukhmabai's mother belonged.