History of MGIMS
Sevagram is a small village, located AbOUT 8 km from Wardha in Maharashtra. Mahatma Gandhi came to this village when barely 1000 people lived here and set up his ashram at the outskirts of the village. Seth Jamnalal Bajaj of Wardha, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, made available about of land and built the huts for Gandhiji, Kasturba and ashramites. The huts were built for the same material as the village homes to demonstrate sanitary and healthy living to the villagers. The ashramites took upon themselves the message of education, sanitation and cottage industries to improve their living conditions and the ashram employed a few harijans in the common kitchen to break the caste barrier.
Dr Sushila Nayar arrives in Sevagram
In 1938, Dr Sushila Nayyar, a fresh medical graduate form Lady Hardinge Medical College came to Sevagram for a month. Her brother, Pyarelal, was Gandhiji’s secretary. Sushila Nayyar fell in love with Gandhiji’s philosophy and went on to stay for nearly two years. As a fresh graduate she had to learn to cope with an epidemic of typhoid and cholera. Gandhiji encouraged her to teach villagers how to look after themselves. This concept of preventive and curative healthcare was later adopted as the only feasible type of health service for rural India.
Dr Sushila Nayar goes back to pursue Post graduation
Dr Sushila Nayyar experienced the frustrations of any young doctor working in a village away from all help and guidance and felt the need for higher education and training. In 1940 she went to her alma mater and took up post graduation in Medicine. In 1942 she was awarded MD (Medicine) and few days later she was arrested in Bombay along with Kasturba Gandhi in the Quit India movement. She was released from the Aga Khan Detention Camp on May 6, 1944.
On 2 October 1944, Gandhiji’s 75th birthday, it was proposed that Mahatma Gandhi would be given a purse of Rs 75 lakhs. Gandhiji decided to use this money for establishing Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust. The trust was to work mainly for women and children in the neglected villages, and Gandhiji became the first chairman of the trust.
Kasturba Hospital is born
In 1942 Gandhiji came back to Sevagram. The dispensary in the ashram was kept up and running by the village health workers trained by Sushila Nayyar. Sushila Nayyar too joined Gandhiji and the ashram OPD started overflowing with the patients. Gandhiji, aware that this destroyed the serenity and peace of the ashram, asked Sushila Nayyar to start a new hospital in the guest house, built by Ghanshyam Das Birla about half a km from the ashram. This incidentally was the only hospital started by Gandhiji. Kasturba Hospital started as a 15 bed hospital for women and children, with Dr Sushila Nayyar as the medical officer. Dr Sushila Nayyar also worked out a syllabus for the training of village girls as auxiliary nurse midwives, had it approved by the Nursing Council of India and introduced it at the Kasturba Hospital in 1945. The hospital was later expanded to 50 beds and began to cater for both men and women and children. A few village young men were trained to work as compounders, dressers and laboratory technicians.
Kasturba Health Society is born
After Gandhiji’s death, Dr Sushila Nayyar went to the USA in June 1948 to obtain a DrPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The management of the Kasturba hospital was carried on by the Sevagram ashram from 1948 to 1954 and thereafter it was taken over by the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (Mahatma Gandhi National Memorial Trust). Later it was decided to set up an independent registered society to mange the hospital and accordingly Kasturba health society was born on September 11, 1964. Dr Sushila Nayyar, then the Union health minister, was persuaded by the then chairman of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi to become the chairperson of the society. The Gandhi Smarak Nidhi handed over the buildings, land and equipment of the Kasturba hospital to the KHS, along with the responsibility of running the hospital and earmarked a sum of Rs one million for this purpose.
Rural Medical College: A dream?
Dr Sushila Nayyar was aware of the Gandhiji’s interest in rural healthcare and the importance he attached to prevention of disease and promotion of health. As union health minister she was also aware that no doctor was willing to go the village. In 1964, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, then the Prime Minister of India suggested to her start a medical college in rural areas in the hope that young doctors trained in a rural setting would understand the problems rural people have to go through and would be more willing to work in villages. In 1965 Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Sevagram along with the chief minister of Maharashtra and Dr Sushila Nayyar. Dr Sushila Nayyar put before them a proposal of starting a rural based medical college in Sevagram and got their approval for the experiment.
A scheme for starting a medical college in the rural setting of Sevagram, based on the Kasturba hospital which was to be expanded for this purpose was worked out and the planning commission gave its approval to it in principle. Dr Sushila Nayyar took it to Vinoba Bhave and Morarji Desai and got their blessings for the scheme.
In 1966 Lal Bahadur Shastri died and the new prime minister and the finance minister were too busy to give their attention to the scheme. After the 1967 elections, Dr Sushila Nayyar was no longer the health minister, but this did not prevent her from striving for converting her dream into reality.
Genesis of MGIMS
The year 1969 was to mark the 100th birth anniversary of both Kasturba Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi and a high powered centenary committee was set up in 1965 under the president ship of President of India, with the Prime Minister as the chairman of the executive committee to chalk out a suitable programme for the Gandhi centenary and see to its implementation. As member of the executive committee, Dr Sushila Nayyar proposed that the proposal for starting a medical college in Sevagram needed to be revived.
Many hurdles-bureaucratic and political- came in the way. Shri Morarji Desai, then the deputy Prime Minister and the finance minister, finally called a joint meeting of the state and central government ministers of health and finance and Dr Sushila Nayyar as chairman of Kasturba health society on 8 August 1968. The project was accepted on the condition that the Government of India, Maharashtra Government and the Kasturba Health society would share the expenditure on it in the proportion of 50:25:25.
The windfall
Dr Sushila accepted the challenge and set out to work out the details, collect funds, acquire land, recruit staff and equip the existing buildings for teaching Physiology, Biochemistry and physiology. She acquired of land, partly bought, partly gifted, partly acquired. The first batch of medical students was admitted on August 12, 1969. The Nagpur University agreed to accord recognition to the college.
Once the college was recognized, Dr Sushila Nayyar went about collecting funds with a missionary zeal to fulfil the task which she had undertaken. In 1970-71, the USAID came forward with a generous grant of Rs. 2 crores for the capital cost of the building and equipment. Dr Sushila Nayyar and her team used this money to build her institution which today houses 648 beds. As the institute was located in Maharashtra, it was agreed that fifty per cent of students were to be selected from Maharashtra and the remaining from the rest of India.