Founder In India

The profession of occupational therapy was established in India in 1950. Despite its 70 years of existence in India, the profession has gained momentum in the healthcare sector of India only in the past decade.

Beginning years

The first department of occupational therapy (OT) was established at the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) in Mumbai, India in 1950. The founder of the ‘OT profession in India’ as well as the ‘first school of OT in India/Asia’ was Mrs. Kamala V. Nimbkar [nee Elizabeth Lundy]. Mrs. Nimbhkar was a social activist who spent her early 30s at Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram. She became interested in OT when she came across an article written by Ms. Helen Willard, a notable occupational therapist in the United States. Dr. Nimbhkar went to the US to study OT at the Philadelphia School of OT at the age of 45. After passing the OT board exam in February 1948 she returned to India and persuaded the KEM Hospital Administration to start the OT department.

Mrs. Nimbkar was also the founder and first president of the All India Occupational Therapists Association, which is one of the founding member organizations of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT). Mrs. Nimbhkar was also the first editor of the Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy in its beginning years. Mrs. Nimbkar retired in 1957 from the Occupational Therapy School at KEM Hospital and established the second OT school at Nagpur in 1958.