Armida Fernandez

Armida Fernandez spent decades caring for the smallest and sickest babies at a busy Mumbai hospital, then took her work into the city’s informal settlements. In 2026 she was named for the Padma Shri in the field of medicine, from Maharashtra ^[1].

Training

Fernandez was born in Dharwad, Karnataka, on 6 July 1943 ^[2]. She completed her MBBS at Karnataka Medical College, Hubballi, in 1965, winning five gold medals, and an MD in paediatrics at KEM Hospital, Mumbai, in 1971 ^[2].

Saving newborns

In 1972 she joined the paediatrics department of Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital in Mumbai ^[2]. She headed its neonatology department from 1977 to 1999 and was dean from 1999 to 2001 ^[2].

There she cut deaths among premature and sick newborns using low-cost methods ^[2]. In 1993 she set up the first human milk bank in India, which the citation describes as the first in Asia, so that every baby in the hospital, including the most fragile, could be fed human milk instead of formula or animal milk ^[2].

SNEHA

In 1998 she founded SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action) to improve health in vulnerable urban communities and strengthen public health services ^[2]. Its work follows women and children through adolescence, pregnancy and early childhood, and also addresses domestic violence and mental health. In 2017 it added a palliative care programme ^[2].

She was made an Ashoka Fellow in 2004 and received a Papal knighthood in 2026 ^[2].