Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 5: Dr Anjali Nimbalkar, an industrious & passionate doctor from Khanapur, Karnataka, is a role model in modern politics. Raised in a traditional Indian family with & her father being a general surgeon working in a core rural area, from her childhood, Dr Anjali has understood the ethos & aspirations of rural India. Dr Anjali Nimbalkar's grassroots upbringing has instilled in her a strong sense of social commitment to stand for the deprived & have-nots of society, particularly women & children.
While working as a gynaecologist in a medical college, she noticed that women have neither priorities nor any rights in the sphere of health & education. They often get stuck with their family chores and other responsibilities. She realized that unless women were empowered socially & economically and had enough resources, they would not prioritize their development.
Husband Hemant Nimbalkar is an IPS officer; initially, post marriage Dr Anjali had roamed & seen most parts of Karnataka with him wherever his job took him to the places. She continued to work as a medical officer in primary health centres where ever she went with her husband’s job, and later she worked as an associate professor at Dr Ambedkar Medical College, Bengaluru.
Reformation starts for Dr Anjali from her own family, as there is no gender bias between her son & daughter for any opportunity available. Eighteen-year-old son knows how to cook & clean utensils & home washrooms where, and the thirteen-year-old daughter knows how to walk the pets and bathe them & feed them. Equal opportunities crossing gender boundaries is the core of her thought process behind her every woman empowerment initiative.
Being from a farmer’s family, Dr Anjali has a deep sense of respect for farmers and their service to the community. Her continuous endeavour is to bring the farmer out of the vicious circle of uncertainty due to uncertain monsoon-based agriculture coupled with an unorganised credit structure at the village level. She has a unique combination of traditional and modern values, which are evident in her personality and approach to problem-solving. Her work during flood rescue and flood rehabilitation is one to mark as when her own house was completely submerged in floods, this workaholic MLA was trying to hold the tears of her constituents suffering damages due to floods. Dr Anjali’s work during the pandemic is a classic example of how a public representative should respond to the needs and fears of her people.
She felt that she could give back to society by sharing what she had learned from her family, culture, and education. She began visiting every village in Khanapur taluka of the Belgaum district, empowering women and promoting education. She started the Dr Anjali Tai Foundation, which focuses on the empowerment of women and children of Khanapur Taluka.
Being a gynaecologist, she has conducted many seminars for 8th, 9th, and 10th standard girls of Khanapur Taluka on menstrual hygiene. The impact of these seminars has been enormous. Girls who were once shy and ashamed to talk about their issues and problems are now feeling confident to express themselves. An MLA herself educates the girls of her constituency is surely a step ahead of time and has been a big step towards breaking down the social stigma surrounding women's issues. To bring women's issues to the centre of society; Dr Anjali started Haldi Kum Kum programs in every village where women gather and spend time together with Dr Anjali; discussing their socio-economic issues, personal problems, and any topic under the sun. Dr Anjali has provided such an interactive platform for rural women to express themselves freely and fearlessly. Through her Haldi Kum Kum programs, she has perfectly blended traditional Indian values with modern progressive thought processes for women empowerment. With her relentless efforts, she could get a sixty-bed Mother Child Hospital for Khanapur. She has improved the health infrastructure of every village of Khanapur Taluka. Recently she has got approved for a 100-bed hospital for her constituency, coupled with improvement in conditions of each Primary Health Care Centre in Taluka. For this commitment, the women of Khanapur lovingly call her ‘Tai.’ Tai in Marathi means elder sister, and Tai in Kannada means mother.
Dr Anjali believes that education is the key to progress, and her Anjalitai Foundation strives to make a difference in the rural educational sphere. Her commitment to giving back to society and promoting education is an inspiration to many, and she continues to work tirelessly to improve the lives of those around her. Dr Anjali is very passionate about promoting education in rural areas. She has been relentlessly working towards providing facilities like bus transport and infrastructure like new school buildings. After becoming MLA of Khanapur, she has constructed more than 650 new school rooms with better & modern facilities in the remotest villages of Khanapur Taluka. Anjalitai Foundation is big way instrumental in providing educational necessities for school-going kids, like school bags, compass boxes, examination writing pads, and other essential school stationery free of cost. However, the challenge remains in providing access to schools for children in remote forest areas where they may have to walk long distances.
Change is a constant she keeps on working and mentions a few changes she has brought: the construction of the Khanapur Bus Stand, road infrastructure, connectivity to the remotest forest villages, metalling of roads passing through jungles without disturbing the natural resource of taluka, bridges, and culverts on various rivulets, more than hundred check dams to increase the groundwater level and so on.
Dr Anjali Nimbalkar believes in balancing development and preserving the natural environment. She has a unique inclusive way of approaching socioeconomic issues and strives to perfect the solutions from within with positive contributions from stakeholders. She is a real catalyst for development and the instrument of change for an erstwhile stagnated developmental process for nearly seventy years.
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