Women's Day 2023: I don’t think I could balance my family and work very well: ICMR-NARI Director Sheela Godbole

Dr Sheela Godbole, Director, ICMR—National AIDS Research Institute.

Sheela Godbole did not know that she would be an accomplished doctor one day. Forget about opting for the medical field, she did not even have a discussion with her family about having a career nor know that she would study sciences. But she did remember the only lesson that her academician parents taught her. It was to do well at whatever she attempted.

Little did she know that that lesson would nudge her to take step after step and create a pathway of milestones and an inspirational life for all career-oriented women.

Dr Godbole is now director of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)–National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune. She has been instrumental in driving data validation studies for ending the transmission of HIV from mother to child in India and was the national coordinator for the World Health Organisation’s solidarity trial for hospitalised COVID patients in India.

She has received multiple research grants, conducted the impact evaluation of India’s free anti-retroviral treatment programme, was co-lead for ICMR for phase II and III of COVOVAX vaccine trials and was instrumental in creating an HIV database and cancer registry match study, which was the first of its kind in India.

“It was ingrained in me that whatever I do, I have to do well. My mother was a teacher. I was always expected to do well, but we never had a conversation about if I should have a career or not. I loved biology but it was never that I wanted to study sciences,” Godbole told Moneycontrol.

When she was in school, one of her teachers had cancer and she thought that maybe she wanted to be a doctor and probably the thought manifested itself, as today she heads the prestigious AIDS research institute.

NARI was set up 31 years ago in 1992. The institute has been conducting groundbreaking clinical trials for AIDS that were funded by the US’ National Institute of Health.

But it was not all smooth sailing despite her excelling at studies and joining the medical profession. She was only 26 when she opened her clinic in Pune in 1993 as a dermatologist. “Initially, when I opened a clinic, a lot of people would say, ‘Oh! You are very young’. People expect to visit doctors who look mature. So I started wearing a lot of sarees to look experienced,” she said.

Work, work, work 

While she struggled at the workplace to gain patients’ confidence, on the home front she was missing out on her daughter’s precious toddler moments as she put in crazy hours, working from early morning till late evening.

“I don’t think I balanced my family and work very well. I worked too hard. Earlier years were spent feeling guilty of not doing enough at the workplace or at home. My daughter actually used to count the days that I spent outside home. I missed the parent-teacher meetings to the extent that after some time I even forgot that I am supposed to go for them. But later one understands and the family adjusts.”

When in 2001, after a decade of private practice, Dr Godbole moved into the field of research, which largely constituted men from the medical fraternity, it was a struggle to make her voice heard.

“When I attended technical meetings, being a relatively younger person at 40 and a woman, one’s voice was not heard. The input that I gave was mansplained by another. When the same point that I made was put forth by a man, it was given weightage. But I learnt not to keep quiet and make a point if I have to. That bothered me in the initial years, but I put in the effort to be heard.”

Despite all the challenges, quitting was never an option as leaving things undone or midway was not what her parents taught her. “I was driven,” she says.

HIV prevention

She worked on collaborative multinational research on preventing HIV in couples and today, she has changed the way HIV is treated in India. As a consultant caring for persons with HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the pre-antiretroviral treatment era in India, she was drawn to fill gaps in HIV and STI care through research.

For over two decades, she has led clinical trials for HIV prevention. She has successfully been able to liaise and interact with state AIDS control societies, state health systems and medical colleges, especially in microbiology, community medicine and medicine departments across India, and other institutions for research studies.

Did you know?

When she is not being a doctor, she plays the sitar and reads fiction on her Kindle, arranges flowers, sews clothes for babies and even embroiders.

Her inspiration

Her inspiration is two-time Nobel Prize winning physicist Marie Curie.

Quotes by Dr Godbole:

“My life advice is to be a good scientist and cultivate passion, patience, perseverance, proficiency in the subject with politeness and respect for all persons and schools of thought.”

“I expect perfection. I also lead by example. Carry the tribe of women upward with you.”

“My passion is science and research, particularly that which can make a difference to the health of disadvantaged people, especially women. I want to make a difference in every little way possible.”