Townsville’s Prof Ajay Rane PSM OAM describes his latest award, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas Indian Award), as “mother’s blessing.”
He was one of 27 diasporan Indians who received the award presented by the Government of India early in the new year.
Describing it, Prof Rane said, “It was like feeling the hand of my mother on my head.”
An interesting choice of words – not just because of the emotional reference to Mother India, but also because mothers and motherhood have defined his career that now transcends borders.
Professor and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at James Cook University’s School of Medicine, Dr Rane also serves at Mater Hospital Townsville and Townsville Hospital.
He is a recognised figure in the subspeciality Urogynaecology (which treats pelvic floor issues as one, whether urinary, bowel or sexual).
Prof. Rane’s professional, philanthropic and humanitarian work with pelvic dysfunction, genital trauma in particular, has taken him to various corners of Asia and Africa, and has seen him continue his seminal work in India.

“The recognition from my motherland was very special,” Dr Rane describes. “The Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas experience was emotional in many ways. The welcome by the state of Orissa was very warm, and the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi very exciting. The Conference itself was superbly organised by the Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar – I would say he impressed me the most. And of course, receiving the award from the President of India, who is the epitome of the success of women in India.”
Talking of women, what drew him to the field of women’s health?
“Probably goes back a long way. My father, a surgeon, ran a charity hospital with my mum in Bhalod, near Jalgaon in rural Maharashtra. I was born in the UK but my parents decided to move back to India to serve its people. As a child, I could not help but notice how disposable the life of women was. I wondered, what skills could I gain to help their suffering?”
He would go on to take an MBBS degree from the Savitribai Phule Pune University, and a PhD from James Cook University in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
“I saw a lot of genital trauma – during childbirth, or due to terrible things done to women. And so, I decided to become a reconstructive surgeon. There were very few people doing this work at the time.”

The decision took him on a path that saw him contribute not only as a medical practitioner but also as an inventor and quite significantly, as an advocate, to bring dignity to the lives of women.
Looking back at his career, Prof. Rane likes to describe four “footprints”.
An early footprint was on female infanticide and foeticide in India. “Given the number of deaths across the world, you could say this has been the largest ever genocide in our history,” Prof. Rane says.
He jumped in with advocacy programs when the Indian government passed in 1994 the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCP NDT) to ban prenatal sex screening and female foeticide, including a Bollywood-style film (Riwayat, 2011).
Although claims are that the Act was poorly enforced, Prof. Rane notes, “In more than seven states in India, finally, the gender ratio has improved tremendously, and that’s very good news for women.”
A second footprint is Prof. Rane’s work in the treatment of fistula. This is a gap that forms between the birth canal and the bladder and/or rectum due to prolonged, obstructed labour in the absence of timely medical care. It leaves the sufferer leaking urine, and/or faeces, causing chronic medical, social and psychological issues.
“Fistulas are the ultimate cruel affliction of childbirth trauma. Most of the sufferers I meet in Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, even India, say to me. ‘The lucky ones died in childbirth, and the unlucky ones survived.’ They would rather have died than have a fistula.”

Prof Rane launched the Dr Paula Rane Fistula Ward, named after his wife, at the Kasturba Gandhi (Gosha) Hospital in Chennai in 2004. Four hundred surgeons were trained there.
In Australia, the Ranes’ Flourishing Women charity raises funds for fistula treatment worldwide.
In a third footprint, Prof. Rane lists his work with vaginal reconstruction, addressing issues of bowel and bladder incontinence (he developed a surgical procedure called Perigee for treating bladder prolapse), genital prolapse, and genital trauma whether from childbirth sexual violence, rape or war.
Wartime sexual violence took Dr Rane’s work to a whole new level, marking his third footprint. “It became clear to me that putting these women back together surgically, is not enough. They are traumatised by their experiences and need care at various levels.”
He learned this while working with Congolese doctor, human rights activist and Nobel Laureate Denis Mukwege. “We started the four-pillar system – incorporating surgical, mental, judicial, and financial care of victims.”

Dr Rane’s final footprint deals with female genital mutilation. “This is a terrible problem – not just in Africa, but also in Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries where women are subjected to terrible trauma only because they are women.”
He summarises, “Female oppression just finds a different face every time we look up – foeticide, genital mutilation, rape, gang rape, childbirth trauma. It’s a womb-to-tomb oppression of women, which we want to advocate against and prevent as much as possible.”
Added to this is the sheer size of the problem. “Only 35% of the female population in the world have access to good quality medical help; 65% are still looking for basic help. We want to reach this 65%.”
Yet Prof. Ajay Rane is hopeful.
“I want to say to the new generation of urogynaecologists – give back to the community much more than my generation has. Free of charge. Give education. Go to developing countries. Share your skills, and make this world a better place. To the Indian doctors in Australia I say, commit to spending a month in the motherland, annually.”
READ HERE: India has highest number of doctors working overseas: OECD report