Featured MMMF Recipient: Arundati Muralidharan

An energetic team of WBFN volunteers and MMMF Board members/advisors are working on the final stages of a book covering the MMMF’s 30 years of supporting women’s education. Among the many “voices” solicited for this project was the following.

Arundati Muralidharan, a 2009 grantee from India, is a professional medical and psychiatric social worker, who studied for her doctorate in Public Health at Boston University.

“My field experiences with unwed teenage mothers, women living with HIV, and women facing abuse taught me to appreciate the social, cultural and economic dimensions of women’s lives and their health. My interest in the social determinants of health led me to work with sex workers on HIV/AIDS prevention. My dissertation research also focuses on a much-neglected group of women—young unmarried women living in slums in India, and how they access care for sexual and reproductive health concerns. I am in the process of starting my own organization to encourage and support youth in slum communities in Delhi to develop technological and social innovations to address community concerns in a sustainable manner. My academic and professional experiences have given me a deeper understanding as to why women in India have little knowledge of and control over their own bodies. I have begun to appreciate how socio-economic and gender inequalities impact women’s health and rights and to realize that I am among a small minority of Indian women who had the privilege to get a good education. I strongly believe that I should use this to empower women who do not have the same opportunities. The MMMF played a vital role in my journey by supporting my doctoral research work in India and enabling me to share the stories of many voiceless young women. MMMF has also introduced me to other recipients of this prestigious award whose achievements and aspirations inspire me to take my own work forward.”

The Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund (MMMF) provides grants to women from developing countries to help further their education and strengthen their leadership skills to improve the lives of women and children in developing countries.