Bengaluru: Padma Shri awardee Sulagitti Narasamma, passed away at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Tuesday. She was 98. She was suffering from age related ailments and was undergoing treatment at BGS Hospital since 20 days.

Married at the age of 12 to Anjinappa, she has 12 children and 36 grandchildren. Narasamma is best known for extending free of cost midwife services to pregnant women at a time when medical help was hard to come by in rural areas. Though she was an illiterate, she is said to have learnt this skill from her grandmother, Marigemma, at a very young age.

She had helped deliver more than 15,000 babies in Krishnapura, a remote village in Pavagada taluk in Karnataka and was conferred with the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 20, 2018.

Recognising her service to the society, Tumkur University had conferred her honorary doctorate in 2014. She was awarded the Devaraja Urs award in 2012 and Kittur Rani Chennamma award in 2013.

Follow Star of Mysore on Instagram www.instagram.com/starofmysore