inspiring women

India’s education canvas too bears masterly strokes from path-breaking women who fought for women’s education and cultural uplift

Savitribai Phule - first woman schoolteacher in mid-1800s

Durgabai Deshmukh - established vocational training schools for women

Begum Zafar Ali - first woman matriculate of Kashmir

R. Lilavati. A child widow, she refused remarriage and fought for an education, becoming an educationist for 35 years during the British Raj,

created an army of Indian educators

finally retired as the Deputy Director of School Education, Tamil Nadu, in 1974.

born in Madras in 1919,In 1930, this timid 11-year-old was married before knowing what marriage meant

Three months later, before she formally lived with her husband, he died

"Send me to school"

Those four words changed the arc of multiple generations of families

inspiration from R.S. Subbulakshmi, a child widow who founded Sarada Vidyalaya in the 1920s to educate young widows

After schooling in Madurai, she had her vision to be a change-maker within and beyond the classroom underpinned by her teachers at Queen Mary’s College from 1935 to 1939, and Lady Willingdon Training College in 1940 in Chennai

headmistress Leela leading Government Girls’ High Schools in Vellore and Chidambaram from 1944 to 1959,

dressed in crisp white saris and hair tied in a firm bun, while she transformed a dilapidated wedding hall into a school fit for young girls.

Going door-to-door, she would debate with parents to let their children become a graduate before becoming a wife

One of her students reminisces, “India had just gained Independence. Schools had a tall order to shape a new generation of Indians, and teachers were considered role models

Leela taught us self-empowerment and leadership, much before it was described in management books. Several of us became educators, inspired by her.”

Positive thinking and a feisty spirit accompanied Leela as a single working woman from the 1940s to 1970s.

She proudly became the only woman in Tamil Nadu selected for the Madras English Literature Teaching (MELT) Campaign in the 1950s

In 1965, the British Council gave her a rare honour in selecting her to visit England and Wales for a Language Laboratory programme.

On her 100th birthday last year, Leela quipped, “Sachin Tendulkar often gets dismissed at 99, but I made a 100!”

Leela passed away in Bengaluru in August at 101.

Her vision, fearless spirit, and love for literature live as her legacy.

What sweet irony then that Leela’s birthday is on March 8, International Women’s Day.