This Month's Inspiration - Smt. Sudha Murthy
Sudha Murty,
Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, born on August 19, 1950 at Shiggaon in the
Haveri District of North Karnataka, Dr. Sudha Murty is a well-known social
worker and a prolific writer.
After topping
her state in the SSLC board examinations from the Girls’ English School, Hubli
in 1966, Sudha Murty joined the BVB College of Engineering and Technology,
Hubli. Studying engineering at a time when there were hardly any women students
in the stream or women engineers in the industry was a challenge in itself. Not
only did she take up the challenge, but she also secured the first rank among
all the universities of engineering in Karnataka in 1972, and received many
awards, including a gold medal from the Institute of Engineers and a silver
medal from the then Chief Minister of Karnataka, Devaraj Urs.
Getting entry
into an all-male industry proved to be yet another challenge. However, Sudha
Murty passed this test with flying colors, and went on to work as the first
woman engineer for the automobile operations of the Tatas (Telco, now Tata
Motors) in Pune, Mumbai and Jamshedpur. JRD Tata himself arranged for a special
interview for her after she wrote to him directly complaining of the gender
bias in his company (Telco then had a men-only policy). Sudha Murty has also
worked for the Walchand Group of Industries in Pune as a Senior Systems
Analyst.
Even though she
started her professional life as an engineer, she later took up teaching as a
career, while devoting a significant chunk of her time to social work. She has
been the head of the department of Computer Science at the Bangalore University
College, and a Visiting Professor at the Post Graduate Center of a reputed
college of Bangalore University. Her passion for social causes translated into
the creation of the Infosys Foundation in 1996. Ever since its inception, Sudha
Murty has headed the Infosys Foundation with her characteristic commitment and
zeal.
The wide range
of Sudha Murty’s social work covers the sectors of healthcare, education,
empowerment of women, public hygiene, art and culture, and poverty alleviation
at the grassroots level. Over the years, she has designed and anchored several
programs for the construction of school buildings, public toilets, healthcare
facilities and homes for orphan and destitute children. Under her guidance, the
Foundation has disbursed scholarships to needy meritorious students; donated
books to educational institutions and public libraries, trained teachers;
conducted disaster relief operations; imparted technical education to the
youth; set up self-employment centers for women; helped war widows and artistes
fallen in hard times; and revived some of our most traditional yet endangered
arts and crafts.
Some of the
notable projects taken up by the Infosys Foundation under Sudha Murty’s active
leadership are the leprosy rehabilitation camp at Gulbarga, air-conditioning of
the entire burns ward at Victoria Hospital in Bangalore, relief work in the
flood-hit districts of north Karnataka and drought-hit areas of Andhra Pradesh,
and the building of veterinary hospitals in the rural and backward areas of
Karnataka. She is building 10,000 public toilets in the rural areas of
Karnataka and has already built several hundred toilets in the city of
Bangalore. Her vision of a library for each school has resulted in the setting
up of 50,000 libraries so far. Sudha Murty has facilitated the donation of over
several thousand computers to rural schools in Karnataka as she firmly believes
that computers are the tools for the future. Through Foundation she
has built 2,300 houses in the flood affected areas. She has handled
national natural disasters like tsunami in Tamil Nadu and Andaman, earthquake
in Kutch - Gujarat, hurricane and floods in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and drought
in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Sudha Murty is
also a bestselling author, who writes in English and Kannada. Her published
works include eight novels, five collections of short stories, four technical
books, three travelogues, three children’s books and a book on self-
experiences. Some of her most popular works include, “How I Taught My
Grandmother to Read”, “Dollar Bahu”, “Mahashweta”, “Wise & Otherwise”, “Old
Man and His God”, “Grandma’s Bag of Stories” and “Magic Drum & Other
Favourite Stories”. Her most recent book has been, “The Day I Stopped Drinking
Milk”, which is a collation of extraordinary stories about ordinary people’s
lives. Her books have been translated into 16 Indian languages. Sudha Murty’s
books have sold over a million copies overall and 5,00,000 in the English
language alone. Her books have been accepted by young and older audiences alike
and has a huge fan following.
Sudha Murty’s
philanthropy and literary achievements have won her recognition at the state,
national and international levels. She has been honored with the Padma Shri by
the government of India in 2006, the Rajyaprashasti award by the Karnataka
government in 2000, and seven honorary doctorates from the SNDT Women’s
University, Bombay and the universities of Karnataka, Gulbarga, Chennai,
Tirupati, Tumkur, and Kolhapur. The University of California, Berkeley gave her
the International and Area Studies Global Leaders Award, while the Book Sellers
& Publishers Association of South India, Chennai, recognized her contribution
to literature with the R.K. Narayan Award. The Government of Karnataka awarded
her the highest literary award the ‘Attimabbe Award’ –for her literary work for
the year 2011-12. She was awarded the Doctorate of Literature from Tumkur
University in 2012 for her thesis on “Functional Strategies and Best Practices
of Infosys Foundation”
