Dharwad born Dr Madhuri, third woman to get three-star rank

Dharwad: Dr Madhuri Kanitkar, a paediatrician working for the Indian Army, has the rare distinction of being only the third woman officer in the country to get a three-star rank, and she is now a Lieutenant General.
Lt Gen Puneet Arora and Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyaya are the other two to be decorated with the three-star rank.
The people of Dharwad are elated with her achievement, as she was born in Dharwad. Her great grandmother Saraladevi Khot, who was called by her maiden name Akkubai Chitnis, was a doctor in the 1920s, and was a major source of inspiration for Madhuri to pursue a career in medicine.
Saraladevi’s story was very similar to Anandibai Joshi, India’s first female physician. “My grandmother was an orphan at two, child widow at eight, left to destiny, and brought up by Hingane Stree Shikshan Samstha in Pune, and went on to become a doctor,” Madhuri recalled.
A brilliant student, Madhuri had cleared all three phases of MBBS with the distinction of being first in Pune University, and was the recipient of the President’s Gold Medal for the best outgoing student of the graduate wing in academics and extra-curricular activities in 1982.
While becoming a doctor was her childhood dream, what made her join Armed Forces Medical College for an MBBS was a chance visit to the AFMC with a friend, whose father was an Air Force officer. “Impressed by the discipline and the environment in the college, where one could pursue academics as well as extra-curricular activities to develop one’s personality, I decided to join AFMC. The decision was much against the wishes of my father,” she says.
Soon after becoming a graduate, she was commissioned in the Indian Medical Corps in 1982, and she did her postgraduation in paediatrics eight years later. In between, she got married to Rajiv Kanitkar, who retired as a Lieutenant General from the Indian Army. They are the first couple in the armed forces to have three-star ranks.
Dr Madhuri has served in Udhampur, Pathankot, Ladakh and other places, and is decorated with the AVSM and VSM medals.