n 1892, a 22-year-old Ida Scudder was asked to help three women in the throes of difficult childbirths in Tamil Nadu. John Scudder, her father and a medical missionary from America, offered help. But the custom prohibited the visit of a male doctor at child birth.

Next day, Ida got the news that the three women died. She took it as a call form God and returned to America and began studying medicine at Cornel Medical School in New York.

In 1899 she was one of the first women to graduate from Cornell. She went back to India and started a one-bed hospital in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, which later became the Christian Medical College.

Recently the college was selected the best medical college in India. 

Dr Ida Scudder's relations also came to greet Dr George Chandy, the new director of the
college, along with the friends and alumni of CMC at a function organized by the CMC Vellore
Board, USA, in New York, last week. Vijay Nambiar, India's Permanent Representative to the
UN, and Consul General Parameshar Rath were also present at the event.

"Times have changed with globalization and five star hospitals," Chandy said, "but CMC is still
continuing the work of Dr Ida Scudder to help the needy and poor." 

"Rich and poor alike get the same treatment there. Nobody is turned away. The rich gives a little
more which becomes a source to help the poor," he noted.

Dr Scudder wanted to empower the women with education paving the way for a social change
and the CMC is doing that through medical and other education, he said. But, the condition of
women is still not much improved, he lamented.

It was the CMC that detected the first HIV infection in India. In CMC, the AIDS patients are
also treated along with others and there is no segregation of them, he said. The college spends
$6250 for a medical student a year collecting $60 as fee. 3000 outpatients and 2000 inpatients
are treated daily. A staff of 5037 people spread the message of Scudder.

The college has not faced any problems or pressures due to political or social changes, he said.
But sometimes the bureaucracy may be a stumbling block. It may take ages to get permission
for a small thing. "Also we do not publicize our work. So, many people do not know the work
we are doing," he noted.

Rajat Gupta, managing director of Mckinsey & Co, spoke about the programs to help India.
Millions of Indians are under the threat of AIDS, but the response of the government for the
proposals and programs from the NRIs is disappointing, he said. He also recounted his
experience, when a state minister in India asked for money to give permission for a non-profit
institution. He flatly refused and later the minister came after him. He said NRIs have a duty to
set standards in such things.

Scott J Scudder, a chiropractic physician in New Jersey and the president of the Scudder family
association, says the family continues the tradition of Dr Ida. Still the family collects and send
money to CMC and support its activities. "It is a large family and everybody is proud of the
services of Dr Ida Scudder," he said. He has not met her.

But Edwina Youth remembers seeing her in her last days. Youth and her daughter Dr Elise are
members of the CMC Board USA.