AIIMS Diamond
Jubilee Celebrations
RAJ KUMARI AMRIT KAUR
*V.Srinivas
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur became
the First President of AIIMS at the age of 67, a position she held from 1957
till her demise in 1964. Her contribution to the governance and institution
building at AIIMS are legendary. The Princess of Kapurthala had her early
education at Oxford University. She was awarded the Doctor of Laws by Princeton
University in 1956. She joined the Mahatma’s Ashram in 1934 and served as his
Secretary for 16 years. She spent three years in prison for participating in
the Quit India movement. She became the first woman to hold a Cabinet rank in
Nehru’s Cabinet and the President of the World Health Assembly in 1950. It can
be said that without her visionary leadership, AIIMS would not have reached the
heights of excellence that it has scaled over the past 6 decades to emerge as
the premier Medical Sciences University of India.
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur chaired
the first meeting of the Governing Body in 1957. In her eight-year tenure, she
chaired 25 Governing Body Meetings. Dr Jivraj Mehta the Director General Health
Services and Dr. B.B.Dixit Director AIIMS served with her for the entire
period. She got an IAS officer as Deputy Director for running the administration
for a 12-year tenure to ensure stability in the process of Institution
Building. The first Governing Body meeting underscored the massive governance
challenge before the AIIMS administration of establishing the Institute as an
apex medical sciences University with tight budgets, lack of adequate
personnel, absence of infrastructure and dependency on foreign funding. It set
the foundations for a governance structure where high level policy support and
interventions for the Institute’s growth were available as the President AIIMS
took upon herself the responsibility of coordination with the Health Ministers
of State Governments, coordination with Union of India for additional budgetary
allocations and for delegation of adequate administrative and financial powers
to Director AIIMS.
1st Governing Body
of AIIMS
The first Governing Body
meeting of AIIMS was convened on 27th may 1957. The Governing
Body members who attended the meeting included Rajkumari Amrit Kaur in the
chair, Dr. A.L.Mudaliar, Dr. Jivraj Mehta, Lt. Col Jaswant Singh Director
General Health Services, Lt Col Amir Chand, Dr. R.M.Kasliwal and Dr B.B.Dixit
Director AIIMS. The Union Health Secretary was not a member of the Governing
Body although the Joint Secretary Ministry of Finance was a member of the
Governing Body.
The Budget for the year
1957-58 was Rs. 40 lacs and the entire 2nd Five Year Plan allocation
for AIIMS was Rs. 11.11 crores. As the budget was not adequate for the
construction of the hospital building upto the end of the 3rd Five
Year Plan period, the Governing Body decided to approach the Government of
India to transfer the Safdarjang hospital to the Institute. The Institute also
accepted donations from the Rockefeller Foundation for a grant of USD 200,000
for purchase of books and publications and scientific equipment. Amongst the
important decisions of the Governing Body was to consider and adopt the
Regulations of AIIMS.
The Governing
Body considered the half-yearly progress report of AIIMS and rated the performance
of the Institute “Very Good”, despite the insufficient staff. The Director was
mandated to identify suitable candidates for the posts of Professor of General
Surgery, Head of Department of Medicine, Head of Department of Preventive &
Social Medicine and Professor of Anesthesiology. The services of Prof
H.M.Smetana were made available by the Delhi University for the post of
Professor of Preventive and Social Medicine, which was sponsored by the
Rockefeller Foundation. However obtaining services of Dr. P.N. Wahi for the
post of Head of Department of Pathology from the Government of Uttar Pradesh
and the services of Dr Srivastava and Dr Balakrishnan for the posts of
Professors of Medicine from the Government of Bombay was not possible. The
State Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Bombay insisted on their prior
resignation and Institute could not protect their past services. So tight was
the budgetary allocation that the Institute accepted the sponsorship of the
Rockefeller Foundation for air conditioning of the Institute building as it was
felt that constructing the building without air conditioning was impossible.
60
Teaching Beds of Safdarjang and New Zealand Grant
The
decision not to construct a Hospital for AIIMS was taken in view of the lack of
finances and increased cost on their buildings and equipment and was deferred
till the 3rd Five Year Plan. Dr Jivraj Mehta as Director General
Health Services offered 60 beds in Safdarjang Hospital for teaching purposes
for the Departments of Medicine and Surgery as Professors had been appointed in
these Departments. That said, the Institute accepted the Pounds 1 million grant
from New Zealand for construction of the Hospital at the Institute and
construction was taken up in the 2nd Plan Period.
AIIMS
becomes autonomous in November 1956
Rajkumari
Amrit Kaur protected the autonomous nature of the Institute. She maintained
that the Institute became autonomous from 15th November 1956 and all
posts with a minimum pay of Rs. 600/- per month or more would be created with
the approval of the Government, while no prior approval was necessary for posts
carrying a minimum pay of less than Rs. 600/- per month. It was based on this
decision that the Governing Body decided to fill 35 posts of Assistant
Professors without prior approval of Government.
The
Governing Body ensured that the autonomous nature of the Institute was
preserved. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur had created an international face for the
Institute by collaborations with Rockefeller Foundation and the Government of
New Zealand and encouraged further collaboration with the University of
Pittsburgh. The AIIMS insignia was approved by the Governing Body in 1958 and
slogan "shariramadhyam
khalu dharma sadhanam" was decided in consultation with Vice President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur permitted Governing Body meetings to be chaired by Dr.
Jivraj Mehta in her absence. Dr Jivraj Mehta led Governing Body decided to
relax conditions of admission to candidates of Nepal under the technical
cooperation scheme of the Colombo Plan as also students from Burma. The
Institute permitted exchange of post graduate students by sending AIIMS senior
students abroad and getting some students from abroad. The Nursing College at
Delhi was shifted to the Institute and amalgamated with it in 1958.
The
Apex Medical Sciences University
The discussions
in the Governing Body indicate the passion with which Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
pursued institution building. By 1959, the Institute had 350 beds at the
Institute and 84 teaching beds for medical and surgical cases at the Safdarjang
Hospital in addition to the Nursing College. The Institute continued to make
out a case for the transfer of the Safdarjang Hospital to the Institute in
addition to the 650 beds that were planned for the Institute.
Rajkumari
Amrit Kaur maintained that the AIIMS be mandated with the responsibility of
developing teaching patterns in Under Graduate and Post Graduate Medical
Education to all medical colleges and allied institutions of the country. It
was for this reason that she said she chaired the Governing Body of the
Institute and would run it as an autonomous institute through the Standing
Committees namely Finance Committee and Selection Committee both chaired by Dr.
Jivraj Mehta the Director General Health Services, the Academic Committee and
the Building Committee. The Membership of the Institute Body was pan-India
representative, with medical faculties from Indian Universities, Members of
Parliament, Distinguished Medical Educationists, members of the Indian Science
Congress and representatives of Ministries of Education and Finance. The close
collaboration of AIIMS with the Indian Medical Council, the Indian Council of
Medical Research were developed in pursuance of the objective of developing the
apex Medical Sciences University of India.
Rajkumari
Amrit Kaur’s vision envisaged selection of students for admission to the
under-graduate MBBS course in AIIMS is made after an open advertisement, on the
results of an open competitive test, strictly on merit with equal opportunities
to students from any part of the country. It was with this backdrop, the AIIMS
entrance examination was conducted in 5 cities in 1956, 1957 and 1958 namely
Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Nagpur and Delhi with 400 candidates appearing for 50
MBBS seats.
Global
recognition
The
performance of AIIMS by 1961 was noticed in international fora. The
Massachusettes General Hospital on the occasion of its 150th
celebrations, placed AIIMS in the list of most distinguished hospitals of
America, Canada and Europe and presented Rajkumari Amrit Kaur with a medallion
and a ‘Book of Citation’. Dr. B.B.Dixit in his letter to the Chairman, Board of
Trustees Massachusetts General Hospital mentions how greatly AIIMS would
cherish the citation – “This undertaking unites education and research in a
courageous manner to meet the health needs of 400 million people” and AIIMs
shall try its best to live upto these expectations.
Manorville
Rajkumari
Amrit Kaur chaired her last Governing Body meeting of AIIMs on 14th
August 1963. The Governing Body accepted her gift of “Manorville”, her
residential building at summer hill Shimla to the Institute for rest and
relaxation of doctors and nurses of AIIMS. A truly unparalleled gesture in the
history of the Institute.
*****
*Author is a senior civil servant, an IAS
officer of 1989 batch, presently serving as Deputy Director Administration,
AIIMS New Delhi.
The views expressed in the
Article are his personal.