19 Facts About Sugathakumari

Sugathakumari was an Indian poet and activist, who was at the forefront of environmental and feminist movements in Kerala, India.

Sugathakumari was born in Aranmula on 22 January 1934 in the modern day southern Indian state of Kerala.

Sugathakumari's father Keshava Pillai, known as Bodheswaran, was a famous Gandhian thinker and writer, who was involved in the country's freedom struggle.

Sugathakumari was the second of the three daughters of her parents, following an elder sister named Hrdayakumari, and preceding a younger sister named Sujatha Devi, both of them who excelled in literary field.

Sugathakumari was the former state vice president of Kerala Students Union.

In 1968, Sugathakumari won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry for her work Pathirappookal.

Sugathakumari has been described as among the most sensitive and most philosophical of contemporary Malayalam poets.

Sugathakumari wrote children's literature, receiving an Award for Lifetime Contribution to Children's Literature, instituted by the State Institute of Children's Literature, in 2008.

Sugathakumari won numerous other awards for her literary works, including the Vayalar Award and Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary honour from the Government of Kerala.

Sugathakumari won the Saraswati Samman in 2012, being only the third Malayalam writer to do so.

Sugathakumari was the principal of Kerala State Jawahar Balabhavan, Thiruvananthapuram.

Sugathakumari was the founding secretary of the Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi, an organisation for the protection of nature.

Sugathakumari was actively involved with various women's movements of the 1970s and served as the chairperson of the Kerala State Women's Commission.

Sugathakumari founded Abhaya, an organisation that provides shelter to female mental patients, after being appalled at conditions in the government-run mental hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

Sugathakumari received the Bhattia Award for Social Science, the Sacred Soul International Award, the Lakshmi Award for social service, and the first Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award from the Government of India for her efforts in environmental conservation and afforestation.

Sugathakumari's husband Dr K Velayudhan Nair was an educationist and writer who was an expert in educational psychology.

Sugathakumari's elder sister Hridayakumari was a literary critic, orator and educationist.

Sugathakumari died on 23 December 2020, due to complications from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, at the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, thirty days short from her 87th birthday.

Sugathakumari was cremated with full state honours at Santhikavadam crematorium in Thiruvananthapuram on the same day.