Who is Dr Anahita Pandole, who was driving the car with Cyrus Mry?
Dr Anahita Pandole, one of Mumbai’s top gynaecologs, is the reason that the Parsis have a reason to save their dwindling population, a result of intra-marriage in the community. In fact, she gained nationwide recognition for the promotion and preservation of Parsi heritage providing fertility treatments to them at subsidised rates. In January 2004, Dr Pandole, in collaboration with the Bombay Parsi Panchayet, started The Bombay Parsi Panchyet Fertility Project, which allowed them to have access to state-of-the-art medical facilities.
She played a key role in the ideation and formulation of the methodology required for the Jiyo Parsi programme, a Government-funded scheme to help infertile couples from the community become parents. “With time, the Parsi community is witnessing a gradual drop in population. The fertility rate of the Parsi has gone below 1. So, Dr Pandole lent a helping hand to help couples conceive,” said a doctor, who has been associated with her for over a decade. Not only that, with the help of the Parzor Foundation, she helped create a current database of all Parsis living in India for the Union Minry of Minority Affairs. An associate of Dr Anahita from the Jiyo Parshi programme said, “We are really too durbed to talk right now. We are just praying for her recovery.” As per the quarterly report published under the scheme, Dr Anahita treated 18 couples in Mumbai between January and March this year. And over the years, besides her fertility treatment, she has counselled Parsi youth and their families for early marriage, conceiving at the right time and training volunteers.
Cyrus Mry’s death | Those injured have been identified as Dr Anahita Pandole, a gynecolog at Breach Candy Hospital, and her husband Darius Pandole, the MD & CEO of JM Financial Private Equity.(Express video Deepak Joshi)https://t.co/14pLpxAdW5 pic.twitter.com/edCAUYd8W5
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) September 4, 2022
Besides being a doctor, Dr Pandole has been an active citizen committed to community service. On several occasions, she has raised her voice against illegal hoardings. Only last week, she wrote to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), opposing hoardings erected on footpaths along the Western Express Highway, arguing they could pose a danger to motors. “This has to stop,” she wrote in the letter.
Currently, she is undergoing surgery at HN Reliance Hospital. Its CEO, Dr Tarang Gianchandani, said, “They (Dr Pandole and the other survivor) reached the hospital in the early hours this morning — the journey was uneventful. Our clinical team of 20 multi-disciplinary doctors are evaluating them currently and shall be looking after them.”
Dr Pandole is associated with hospitals like Jaslok, Breach Candy, Masina and BD Petit Parsee General Hospital.
