Orthopedics, the last ‘male bastion’ of medical sciences in Jammu and Kashmir, has finally got its first woman practitioner.
Ibreez Rakshan, 24, a postgraduate student of orthopedics at Bone and Joints Hospital of Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar, has ventured into a field which has been perceived as a ‘no-go zone’ for women doctors across India.
“There are many people who ask me if I joined orthopedics by choice. It’s like a shock for them,” Rakshan told media.
She has been interested in orthopedics since her MBBS days and preferred it over other branches during her selection for the postgraduate course.
Rakshan never believed that orthopedics was not a girl’s job and would draw an analogy to gynaecology – a women-dominated realm which has over the years attracted many men in Kashmir.
An MBBS graduate from Dr BR Ambedkar Medical College, Bengaluru, Rakshan has joined the group of a few women orthopedics of north India who have ventured into male bastions of medical sciences. She has also joined the elite club of women doctors of Kashmir consisting of a retired professor of surgery, Dr Mehmooda Khan, Principal of Government Medical College, Srinagar, and renowned clinician Samia Rashid, both of whom had similar stories.
Rakshan is the daughter of well-known gynecologist Farhat Jabeen and renowned pediatrician Kaisar Ahmad, who is head of the department of pediatrics at GB Pant Hospital, Srinagar. Rakshan’s parents have always encouraged her to follow her passion and subject of interest. She has also found a supportive atmosphere at Bone and Joint Hospital. “The entire faculty is very supportive here. They treat me as an equal,” she said.
Rakshan says orthopedics was a reconstructive branch of surgery. “In all other surgical branches, doctors tend to take out things but here, we put things together. It involves joining bones and not breaking them. This requires a lot of brawn as well as brain,” she said.
According to Dr Rujuta Mehta, chairperson of Women Orthopedic Surgeons of India, which is a part of the Indian Orthopedic Association, women make up 74 per cent of medical students graduating every year in India. Yet, they only represent less than 10 per cent of the practicing orthopedic surgeons. “All over India, we have only 226 women orthopedics and the maximum concentration is in south India. There are very few in north India and I don’t have any single name from Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehta said.
