Though healthcare is mainly a male-dominated sector, there are many women who have made a huge difference. While some have earned their name in leading positions in healthcare companies and hospitals, others have toiled at the grassroots level and made a social impact. This Women’s Day, we’d like to honour 15 such women for their extraordinary contribution to the healthcare industry (in alphabetical order).

Dr B R Lakshmi

Director and founder of MDCRC (Molecular Diagnostics, Counseling, Care and Research Center), Dr B R Lakshmi bought with her an amazing 8 years of experience in the field of public health, 7 years of notable achievements in biotechnology, and a strong passion to serve the community. She was also awarded the Young Woman Scientist Award by the Talwar Research Foundation in the year 1994.

Dr Kamini Rao

Women’s issues still remain neglected in India, a country where dignity and modesty is first. Dr Kamini Rao seems to have realised this, and has been catering to different issues of fertility and gynecology for over 33 years. The chairperson and medical director of BACC (Bangalore Assisted Conception Center), Dr Kamini was credited for the birth of India’s first SIFT baby. She has also managed to set up south India’s first semen bank.

Also read: International Women’s Day 2013: Top 5 fitness tips for women

Dr Nandini Mundkur

Dr Nandini Mundkur is one of the few developmental pediatricians in India, and has carried out commendable pioneering work in the field of detection of early developmental disorders. As the director of International Children’s Peace Council, she is one of the few women born in a traditional Indian household, to have progressed to such an amazing extent. She has also bagged several awards and recognition for her achievements in the field.

Dr Nandita Shah 

From the list of homeopathic achievers, Dr Nandita Shah is an evident personality. She was lucky enough to be born and brought up in a family of homeopaths which further boosted her ingrained quality of natural healing. She had the opportunity to work with several known personalities including Dr Rajan Sankaran and late Sarabhai Kapadia. She heads SHARAN (Sanctuary for Health and Reconnection to Animals and Nature) and aims to reverse diabetes by means of a vegan diet.

Dr Sunita Maheshwari

Dr Sunita Maheshwari is a renowned pediatric cardiologist and a major healthcare innovator and is one of the select few who summoned up the courage to return to India for its betterment and development after studying in one of the world’s most sought after universities-The Yale University. She is also the co-founder of Teleradiology solutions, a healthcare outsourcing company. For this amazing contribution to healthcare, she was listed among the top 20 women achievers in healthcare in the year 2009.

Dr Swati Piramal

One of India’s leading industrialists, Swati Piramal’s focus lies mainly in matters of public health and innovation. Being the vice-chairperson of Piramal healthcare, she has actively launched different public health campaigns against malaria, tuberculosis, epilepsy, polio and osteoporosis. Nominated for the list of India’s 25 most powerful women 8 times, she is truly an achiever we are proud to have.

Dr V Shanta

With a family of Nobel Laureates, Dr V Shanta managed to stand out and expand her horizons in the field of medicine. With a clear vision in mind, she grew up with the aim of becoming a doctor, which she did, accompanied by numerous other achievements to her basket of fame. She is a prominent cancer specialist and is the chairperson of the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai. During the course of her career, she has also bagged several awards including the Magsaysay award and the Padmashree award.

Dr Yangerlemla

Principal director of health and family welfare, Dr K Yangerlemla is one of the two women to have filed their nominations for the Nagaland Assembly elections 2013. She also recently inaugurated the newborn stabilisation unit at IMDH in Mokokchung this year.

Also read: International Women’s Day 2013: Top 10 beauty problems women face

Jyotsna Dhawan 

Senior scientist at the Center for Cell and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Jyotsna Dhawan has made a generous contribution to the field of life sciences, particularly muscle stem cells, striving hard to modulate their regenerative power.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Managing director and chairperson of Biocon Limited, Kiran is a renowned entrepreneur. Her numerous achievements managed to get her to Forbes list of 100 most powerful women. Her work in this sector has bagged her numerous awards, including the Padma Bhushan and the Padmashree awards. Starting with the seed capital of only 10,000 INR, she managed to get Biocon to a $1 million company, ranking 20^th in the leading biotechnology companies in the world.

Naini Setalvad

Naini Setalvad is proud to proclaim her strength and extraordinary achievement in losing 100 extra kilos of her weight. Naini sets an example for obese people from all around the world, and urges them to follow healthy living for the betterment of their lives. At 160 kilos in the year 1996, she went a long and painful journey of weight loss, and finally managed to get to the healthy 60 kilos she is today.

Paushali Bal

A research scientist at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric diseases, Paushali Bal strongly voices her opinion regarding the lack of female power among research fields. For her, being a woman shouldn’t hamper the progress and put an end to the career of an individual. For her outstanding work in research, she was awarded the Shanti Sawarup Bhatnagar prize.

Rohini Nilekani

Journalist and a committed social worker, Rohini’s determination in eliminating poverty from India is clearly evident by her generous contribution of a whopping $37.5 million to Arghyam, a foundation that strives to help the rural areas of India get better access to water and sanitation facilities. She also chairs the Akshara Foundation that aims at providing proper elementary education for children.

Rujuta Diwekar

Bagging the ‘Nutrition Award’ from the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Rujuta Diwekar is the most sought-after Mumbai-based nutrition expert. She has also penned down two books on nutrition and food, both of which are on the bestselling list for 4 years now. With a handful of awards to her credit, she is one woman we are proud to have.

Sangita Reddy

Sangita Reddy, the executive director-operations at Apollo Hospitals and the head of Apollo Philanthropy, which encompasses SAHI( Save a Child’s Heart Initiative), CURE and Billions Hearts Beating Foundation, has worked for over 20 years in the healthcare sector, blooming flowers of hope every way she passes. Her contribution to the healthcare industry is commendable.

 Also read: Women’s Day Special: Fitter, Sexier Healthier 

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While actresses of yesteryear, not to mention her contemporaries like Vidya Balan and Sonakshi Sinha scorched the big screen with their voluptuous curves, Bebo thinks big is not cool. She has been dieting like crazy for the past month to get her ‘Size Zero’ figure back; though this time she claims it’ll be a size zero with curves.  “I have gone back to the size-zero look I had in Tashan, but this time it is curvier. I wanted this body for my item song. Since it is a rigorous and raunchy number, I decided to go for a slim and sexy look but I still have curves in the right places. It may be a trend now with some actresses, but I definitely don’t want to look plump or fat!”

New goals, new diet

Kareena’s celebrity dietician Rujuta Diwekar has amended her diet to get her back in shape. According to Kapoor, the key to the perfect figure is augmenting a proper diet with the right amount of exercise. Diwekar keeps changing Kapoor’s diet so that she doesn’t get bored. She reveals that on a recent trip to Turkey she ate nothing but hummus with pita bread, salads, strawberries and olives.

Incidentally for those not in the know hummus is a Middle-Eastern dip which is made with chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Hummus has immense health benefits. It’s high in iron, foliate, Vitamin C and Vitamin B6. The chickpeas in hummus make it an excellent source of protein and dietary fibre, whereas the tahini consisting of sesame seeds is an excellent source of methionine, complementing the proteins. It also has virtually no trans-fats and is very popular with vegetarians as a source of protein. When eaten with pita bread it serves as a whole meal; a very good protein-fibre combination.

For dinner she roped in an Indian cook to make her old-fashioned daal, rice and sabzi. Kareena said the key to a right diet is to have the carbs and proteins in equal proportion.

Exercising right

It’s not only about the diet and the actress did regular yoga up to 40 minutes of asanas and 50 surya namaskars.  She exercised twice a day.

No fad diets for her

The lady also hit out at fad diets saying the no-carbs diet was silly. She has no qualms about eating potato and rice from time to time

It will be interesting to see what the ‘Size Zero with curves’ looks like. 

Also read: Bollywood endorsed diets

Find the culprits

Identify what causes your weight problems – Huge helpings? Bedtime snacks? Bad food choices like samosas, potato chips and desserts? If you have trouble identifying the correct cause, try keeping a food diary and write down about every bite you’ve had during the day (even those two spoons of bhujia and that piece of chocolate at office count). Film actress Neha Dhupia says, ‘Watch what you eat and don’t binge!’

Start with a healthy & filling breakfast

Whether you prefer eggs, yogurt, poha or oatmeal, getting a healthy breakfast under your belt sets the tone for a day of weight control and fewer calories overall. In fact, research shows that people who start their day with breakfast make healthier choices and have a lower body mass index in general. If we skip breakfast, we tend to make unhealthier choices at lunch. It’s as simple as that. For John Abraham, his diet’s main attraction lies in his breakfast because he believes in eating ‘king- size’ breakfast which usually includes a big glass of fresh juice, six egg whites, slices of buttered toast and ten almonds.

Eat less but eat more often
Instead of two to three larger meals a day like people would normally eat, start eating 6 small and low calorie meals throughout the day. Spread it out evenly for the time you wake up till about 8 pm.  Kareena Kapoor strictly follows this rule to maintain her fragile body. Post her morning tea/coffee, she indulges in her breakfast of a bowl of muesli with nuts or two parathas and yoghurt. Her lunch and dinner consists of chapatis with lots of green vegetables and dal. In between, she digs into a slice of cheese, roasted chana or groundnuts, a fruit etc.

Relish your food completely when you eat

More often than not, we are used to watching TV when we eat our food. This distracts us from the body’s signals to tell us when we’re full. The result is overeating and of course, obesity. Sit at your table and eat. Better still, sit cross-legged on the floor and eat – it aids better digestion. Look at each morsel of food that you put in your mouth. Smell it. Feel it. Let all the senses work together to help you digest it better. Celeb dietician Rujuta Diwekar advocates this to all her clients.

Stay away from fast food
Fast food packs kilos on faster than you’d think and slows down the weight loss process. Even the stuff labeled as zero-fat and low-cal aren’t really good for weight loss. Go the Salman Khan way, who chooses clean sources of protein like chicken, egg whites and fish as opposed to sugar and processed food. Salads and pulses are his sources of carbohydrates.

                                                            Avoid eating after 8 pm

Make it a regular practice to have your last meal before eight in the evening. This way you don’t end up binging on a snack before dinner time. If it’s too hard to resist, have some herbal tea or brush your teeth after dinner immediately so as to switch your mind off from the idea of eating. And yes, make it a habit to sleep early to avoid late-night temptations. Now mommy-to-be Shilpa Shetty confesses, “I always eat at least three hours before I go to bed so my body has the chance to work off the calories”.