G. Natchiar

G. Natchiar is an ophthalmologist and one of the founding members of the Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of medicine, from Tamil Nadu ^[1].

Training

She was born on 15 September 1940, graduated from Madras University in 1962 and earned a master’s in ophthalmology from Madurai Medical College in 1969 ^[2]. She then trained in eye pathology at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and held a fellowship in Boston ^[2]. Her first teaching post was at Madurai Medical College, as an assistant professor ^[2].

Aravind

Aravind Eye Hospital was founded in 1976 with the aim of ending needless blindness through good, affordable eye care ^[2]. Natchiar, a founding member of the GOVEL Trust that runs it, has taken on many roles there ^[2].

She built up Aravind’s programme that trains young women from rural backgrounds as mid-level eye-care workers ^[2]. She helped start its microsurgery training and has personally trained more than 2,000 ophthalmologists from India and other developing countries ^[2]. She also headed its neuro-ophthalmology and cataract departments and coordinated the community outreach that lets Aravind treat patients in large numbers ^[2].

She has written textbooks, including Anatomy of the Eye and a manual of neuro-ophthalmology, and more than 55 research papers ^[2]. Since retiring from clinical work in 2011 she has split her time between Aravind and organic farming ^[2].