ThinkHer

Haimabati Sen, born Haimabati Ghosh, was among the earliest female physicians in colonial India. A woman who transformed her unimaginable early trauma into a lifelong mission of healing and social change. Her life embodies resilience, quiet courage, and a refusal to accept the limitations imposed on women of her time. Haimabati was born in 1866 in the Khulna district of the then Bengal Presidency, into a Kulin Kayastha zamindar family. Her father, a zamindar, was unusually liberal for his time — he allowed her to wear male attire and to study alongside her male cousins, a rare privilege for a girl in that era. Y et, societal norms prevailed. At the mere age of nine, she was married off to a 45-year-old widower and Deputy Magistrate with two daughters nearly her own age.  Her husband’s behaviour exposed her, at a very young age, to unsettling and sexually abusive circumstances. He forced himself on her, leaving her frightened and still — “like a piece of wood,” she later wrote....

India’s era of social reform, marked by calls for progress and justice, brought child marriage into focus as a deeply entrenched obstacle to the rights of women and girls. Though outlawed in 1929, the practice remains alarmingly prevalent, with 23% of Indian girls still married before the age of 18. Prominent reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar strongly opposed child marriage, pointing to its devastating impact on health, education, and personal freedom. Girls forced into early marriage face serious risks, including high maternal mortality, greater risk of domestic and sexual violence, and the loss of education and autonomy. While these practical harms motivated most reformers, as early as the 19th century, one woman named Rukhmabai Raut took the argument further. She launched a revolt that was grounded in the ideas of consent, autonomy, and dignity. Rukhmabai’s opposition to child marriage stood apart not merely because it was bold, but because it was intel...