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Kamala Nimbkar

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Kamala Nimbkar
A middle-aged white woman with hair braided across her crown. She is wearing eyeglasses and a sari.
Kamala Nimbkar, from a 1972 publication.
Born
Elizabeth Lundy

5 January 1900
Mount Holly, New Jersey
Died29 August 1979
India
Occupation(s)Occupational therapist, educator
ChildrenB. V. Nimbkar (son)
RelativesNandini Nimbkar (granddaughter)

Kamala Vishnu Nimbkar (January 5, 1900 – August 29, 1979), born Elizabeth Lundy, was an American-born occupational therapist in India.

Early life

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Elizabeth Lundy was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey the daughter of Joseph Wilmer Lundy and Bessie Morris Roberts Lundy. Her father was a Quaker businessman.[1] She attended the Quaker George School, and earned a bachelor's degree in economics at Barnard College in 1926.[2] She returned to the United States later in her forties, to study occupational therapy at the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy.[3][4]

Career

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Before college, Lundy worked as a secretary on a statistical study of coal miners, for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines.[5] In India after she married, Nimbkar taught kindergarten by the Froebel method, and started several schools in that tradition.[6] She is credited as founding the first school for occupational therapy (OT) in India in 1948, when she started the OT department at KEM Hospital.[7][8] In 1958 she founded a second school for OT in Nagpur. She was also founder of the All India Occupational Therapists Association (AIOTA) in 1952, and served as the association's president until 1959.[3][9] In 1960 she founded the Indian Society for the Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, and was its secretary-general until the 1970s.[10]

In 1957 she represented India at an international conference on rehabilitation, held in Indonesia.[10] She visited Baltimore therapy programs in 1959.[11] In 1965, she attended a reunion of patients and therapists from the Toomey Pavilion, a respiratory clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, hosted by Gini Laurie.[12] At a conference in Australia in 1972, she was honored with the Lasker Award by the International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled.[6][13][14]

She edited and published AIOTA's journal, Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy from 1955, and The Journal of Rehabilitation in Asia from 1959.[10] She also wrote articles for other scholarly journals.[15] Her book, A New Life for the Handicapped: A History of Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy in India, was published posthumously in 1980.[16]

She talked about her life and work in an oral interview given to University of Cambridge[17]

Personal life

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Lundy met her husband Vishnu Nimbkar, an Indian businessman, in New York, converted to Hinduism, and moved with him to India in 1930.[17] She lived at the Sabarmati Ashram, the residence of Mahatma Gandhi, for several months upon arrival. She died in 1979, aged 79 years, in India.[18] Some of her letters are in her father's papers at Swarthmore College.[1] Her son was B. V. Nimbkar,[6] and one of her granddaughters is Nandini Nimbkar, both noted agricultural scientists. A secular, Marathi medium school in Phaltan, Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan, is named after her.[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b An Inventory of the J. Wilmer Lundy Family Papers, 1781-1964, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
  2. ^ Barnard College Alumnae Bibliography (2009): 90.
  3. ^ a b "Occupational Therapy: An Indian Historical Perspective". AIOTA. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  4. ^ "PTA Hears Guest Speaker". The Ithaca Journal. 1947-10-23. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Honor Casteless School Innovator". Barnard Bulletin. 1959-04-30. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-07-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b c Skinner, Olivia (1972-09-25). "Love Affair with India". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 35. Retrieved 2020-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Occupational Therapy School and Center". King Edward Memorial Hospital. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  8. ^ "Muncie Girl to Aid in Opening School in India". Muncie Evening Press. 1948-10-25. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy: About us". The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  10. ^ a b c Sullivan, Timy. "Mrs. Kamala V. Nimbkar: Editor, The Journal of Rehabilitation in Asia" Rehabilitation Gazette 15(1972): 33.
  11. ^ "Indian Therapist Makes Study Here". The Baltimore Sun. 1959-04-17. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-07-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Toomey Reunion... 1965" (PDF). Toomey J. Gazette. 9: 93. 1966.
  13. ^ "Historical Awards". The Lasker Foundation. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  14. ^ "3 Will Receive Lasker Prizes". Daily News. 1972-08-27. p. 51. Retrieved 2020-07-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Nimbkar, Kamala V. (1959-01-01). "Training Of Occupational Therapists For Work In The Psychiatric Field". Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 1 (2): 73. ISSN 0019-5545.
  16. ^ Nimbkar, Kamala V. (1980). A New Life for the Handicapped: A History of Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy in India. Nimbkar Rehabilitation Trust.
  17. ^ a b "Interview: Mrs. Kamala V. Nimbkar". Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  18. ^ "Class Notes". Barnard Alumnae Magazine: 33. Summer 1980.
  19. ^ "Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan". Pragat Shikshan Sanstha. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
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