New Delhi. Only nine of the 46 associations under the IMA, India's largest and oldest professional medical association, are currently headed by women. Of the 92 individuals who have served as president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) since its inception in 1928, only one was a woman, a team of researchers said.

A team of researchers also included people from The George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi. The researchers studied the current and past leadership of various medical associations. In the study published in the PLOS Global Public Health journal, the authors said that the inequality of representation continues even in medical associations related to women's health such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and neonatology. Here too, male dominance prevails.

What is IMA?

According to the study, there is only one woman on the leadership committee of the National Neonatology Forum and in the 73-year history of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, only 15 per cent of past presidents were women. Established in 1928, the IMA is a voluntary organisation of 3.5 lakh doctors. Along with promoting modern medicine and public health education, it is involved in representing the interests of doctors and ensuring the well-being of the wider community.