India’s largest and oldest professional medical association, the IMA, has a 96-year-old history. However, only once has a woman been elected president. Out of the 46 associations under the IMA, only nine are currently headed by women, indicating “negligible” representation in its leadership. This information was given in a study.
In addition, a team of researchers, including those from the New Delhi-based George Institute for Global Health, reported that since the Indian Medical Association (IMA) was founded in 1928, it has had 92 presidents, of which only one was a woman. They looked at the current and past leadership of professional medical associations, including the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) and all broad medical and surgical specialties.
In the study published in the journal ‘PLOS Global Public Health’, the authors said that even in medical organisations closely linked to women’s health such as obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and neonatology, unequal gender representation persists, highlighting male dominance. “For example, the leadership committee of the National Neonatology Forum has only one woman and in the 73-year history of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, only 15 per cent of past presidents were women,” the study authors said.
The IMA is a voluntary organisation of 3.5 lakh doctors practising modern medicine. Along with promoting modern medicine and public health education, it is involved in representing the interests of doctors and ensuring the well-being of the wider community. Considering the IMA’s sub-branches, which are part of local groups or branches in 28 states and four union territories, the authors found, “Of the 64 persons currently serving as presidents and secretaries of the 32 sub-branches of the IMA, only three (4.6 per cent) are women”.