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Avabai Bomanji Wadia was a Sri Lankan born naturalised Indian social worker, writer and the founder of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the Family Planning Association of India, two non governmental organisations working to promote sexual health and family planning. She was honoured by the Government of India in 1971 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. ==Biography== Avabai was born on 18 September 1913 in Colombo, the capital of British Ceylon, present day Sri Lanka, to a Parsi couple, Pirojbai Arsiwala Mehta and Dorabji Muncherji, a well placed shipping officer.〔 After primary schooling in Colombo, she moved to England at the age of 15 and completed her schooling at Brondesbury and Kilburn High School, London.〔 Choosing a career in law, she joined the Inns of Court in 1932 and enrolled as a lawyer in 1934 becoming the first Sri Lankan woman to succeed in the bar examinations〔 which she passed with honours.〔 Though she practiced at the High Court of Justice, London from 1936 to 1937,〔 she did not get a permanent job in a solicitors' firm as she faced gender discrimination.〔 During her stay in England, she got involved in the activities of the British Commonwealth League and the International Alliance of Women and got opportunity to meet Indian freedom movement leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, and Jawaharlal Nehru when they visited England for talks with the British government.〔 She returned from England in 1939 and stopped over at Bombay for a month before moving to Colombo to enroll at the Supreme Court to start practice, assisting a Parsi lawyer,〔 from 1939 to 1941.〔 Avabai returned to India in 1941 and settled in Bombay permanently where she met her future husband, Bomnaji Khurshedji Wadia, and they got married on 26 April 1946.〔〔 She joined the All India Women's Conference and continued her social activism, primarily focusing on family planning.〔 Gathering like minded people, she founded the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) in 1949 and later became its president,a post she held for 34 years.〔 Her efforts were known to have assisted in the inclusion of family planning in the first five year plan was launched in 1951.〔 After a brief sojourn in England due to a miscarriage she suffered, she returned to India in 1952 and organised the Third International Conference on Planned Parenthood which gave the opportunity to all the eight associations working in the field to come together. The conference was attended by renowned women's rights activists, Margaret Sanger and Elise Ottesen-Jensen and became the birthplace of the International Planned Parenthood Federation when the delegates unanimously voted for the formation of the organization.〔 She moved to London the same year to focus more on the IPPF activities and served as its president for two terms from 1983 to 1989.〔 During her tenure as the president, IPPF received the UN Population Award in 1985 and the Third World Prize in 1987, both a first time achievement for a non governmental organization.〔 During this period, she continued her professional career and served as the Justice of Peace in Bombay in 1957 and the magistrate of Juvenile Court, Bombay in 1958.〔 Avabai was associated with the Family Planning Association of India since its inception in 1949 till her death, as a founder member (1949-1953), as its general secretary (1953-1963), as its president (1963-1997) and served as its president emeritus from there onward till her death.〔 After serving out her second term as the president of IPPF in 1989, she continued as its patron till 2005.〔 She was also a life member of the Women's Graduate Union, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Maharashtra Women's Council.〔 She was the vice president of the All India Women's Conference for two terms (1956-1958 and 1958-1960), a member of the governing council of the Population Foundation of India and the honorary editor of the ''Journal of Family Welfare'' since 1956.〔 She wrote extensively on the subjects of sexual health and family planning and some of her publications are: * Population Education for the Younger Generation * The Role of Voluntary Organisations in Promoting Family Planning and Population Policy * Some Careers for Women * Proceedings of The First Dr. C. Chandrasekaran Memorial Lecture, October 30, 2001 on population and development : the changing scenario * Population development and the environment * The light will belong to us all He memoirs was published in 2001 under the name, ''The Light is Ours'' by the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati honoured Avabai Bomanji Wadia with the degree, Doctor of Law (honoris causa)〔 and the Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1971.〔 She died on 11 July 2005 at the age of 91, her husband preceding her in death in February 1979.〔〔 She bequeathed a part of her personal wealth to The Research Centre for Women's Studies which manages the ''Dr. Avabai and Dr. Bomanji Khurshedji Wadia Archive for Women'', a body which promotes the women's cause through dissemination of knowledge and social activism. A trust, ''Avabai Wadia Memorial Trust'', has been established which is involved in family planning programmes in association with other non governmental bodies and medical institutions and conducts regular endowment lectures on the subject. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Avabai Bomanji Wadia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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