November 7th, 1655
Dakshin Bharatiya Empire.
The Women’s Employment in the Military Bill became a significant topic of discussion in the empire, causing different reactions in different households the very next day.
"Hey wife, have you heard? Now they are allowing women to join the war. What sort of karma is this?"
"Isn’t it? I don’t know why the queen from the north did such a thing, despite being a woman. Does she want to go to hell?"
This type of conversation was the majority throughout the empire, as even the women thought that it was ridiculous for them to participate in the battle As they could not distinguish between a medical professional working on the front lines and the soldiers.
In other households,
"Father, I think I will sign up for this job. The salary is good, and there is also the land which could be earned by being a nurse at the front lines," the daughter asked with an earnest expression.
"Jaya, shut up! No woman in my house should be seen working outside, especially in the military. Do you want to bring shame to my family? And do you want the neighbours to think of me as a useless man who sends his daughter to work for the family? Where do you think I should keep my face? Go inside, now," the father yelled with an angry expression.
"I should find a husband for this girl as soon as possible. If left like this, who knows what will happen with such thoughts of hers," he thought to himself with an annoyed expression.
"Husband, why don’t you consider it? You could buy the land you were seeing if the daughter also contributes to the family," the wife, with a pleading expression, asked.
The husband, who heard this, got up from his chair and immediately slapped his wife, which made her scream in pain. "Shut up! If you had given birth to a son, I would have already acquired the plot of land and then some more. Tch."
The husband said as he angrily left the house.
This was the situation in households where even though the women found the job attractive and were willing to do it, the men in the family did not agree. In some of these cases, the women, hell-bent on doing the job, directly ran away from home and registered at the nearest government agency.
And lastly...
"Husband, have you heard that the Empire is now allowing even women to join the front lines? Should we consider sending our daughter? She is just of the right age, and we could use the money to buy some land and build a house. I also asked her, and she did say that she was willing to go."
The husband thought for a while and didn’t directly reject the idea but expressed his concern. "Will it be too dangerous for her to go to the front lines, after all? Even though we are poor, we cannot lose our daughter now, can we?"
The wife shook her head and said, "No, I have asked around. The girls’ jobs will be far away from the main battlefield, and their main role is to provide medical aid to the injured soldiers and to assist the chief doctors in the hospital. And apparently, after returning from the battlefield, the government will directly provide jobs and housing."
"But our daughter doesn’t know any of this," the husband still asked with some hesitation.
"I have asked around, and apparently the Ministry of Health will take care of that by training the selected girls," the wife assured him.
The husband finally relented. Although he would be looked down upon among his neighbours and peers, he was too poor to consider all these things. Just by sending his daughter to this job, his family would directly jump into the middle class, and at that time, he would naturally move away from the neighbourhood, so he didn’t care much for it. "Okay, let’s do it. Tell the daughter to be prepared.
I will drop her off at the registration booth."
This reflects the thoughts of lower-caste or economically disadvantaged households, where women typically engage in fieldwork from morning to evening, making it less significant if they work outside the home.
Another type of household, though rare, is where either the woman holds a dominant voice or is a widower with a daughter. These households are more common among refugees, where finding applicants is relatively easier.
At the end of the day, despite the overall unchanged mentalities in the empire, 12,821 applicants were received for the 4,320 available seats.
Lokesh, the Minister of Health, was surprised by this data. He was originally skeptical if anyone would actually show up, but seeing this data now, his worldview had greatly been questioned. Similarly, Vinay, the scientist who came up with morphine and penicillin production, questioned if it was right for women to do this job and whether adequate women would sign up.
Upon understanding the data, he was greatly taken aback and somewhat even had a little change of mentality.
Kavya, upon reading this data, became emotional as her speech really moved some young girls and convinced them to take their destiny into their own hands.
Vijay, upon seeing this data, felt satisfied and came to the conclusion that it was the right time to establish a dedicated learning institute for medical professionals. Without wasting any time, Vijay drafted a document for the establishment of three medical universities called The Bharathiya Medical University (BMU).
These universities, akin to Bharatiya Institute of Technology (BIT), will be named after the city they’re located in.
After careful consideration, Vijay chose three cities famous for their religious and spiritual significance. He believed the environment where the divine is present would contribute significantly to the stability and mental health of both the students and patients. The chosen cities were Nasik, Puri, and Vijayawada, among the empire’s three biggest temple towns.
9th November 1655
The city of Vijayawada.
With the establishment of the university, the noble manor previously owned by the administrator responsible for the city of Vijayawada was confiscated by the royal family after he participated in the rebellion.
As the manor was very large and had a lot of ground for expansion, the problem of housing thousands of students was not a big issue.
Early in the morning, before the doors of Sri Kanaka Durgamma Devasthanam (Temple) were opened, carriages flowed in from different parts of the Empire into the Noble Manor, now called Bharatiya Medical University Vijayawada. Thousands of women disembarked from these carriages, and the recently employed staff showed the way to the women’s quarters to these women.
A total of 4273 women arrived at the university, similar to Bharatiya Medical University Nasik and Bharatiya Medical University Puri.
Godavari was one among the applicants arriving at the university. Her family originally hailed from the state of Kakatiya Puri, near the banks of the Godavari River, hence her name because she was born on a boat while travelling over the river. However, during her childhood, their family had to leave the empire and settle in the Mughal Empire due to the gambling debt her father had incurred.
Unfortunately, life was not easy in the Mughal Empire; no matter how much they worked, they could barely afford to survive. When she was around 16 years old, she ran away from home after her mother passed away from being hit in the head by her alcoholic father.
Mixing in with the refugees fleeing the Mughal Empire, she somehow entered the Dakshin Bharathiya Empire as a refugee. Remembering her mother talking about her hometown and the beauty of the city she grew up in, Raja Mahindra Varam at the Bank of the Godavari River, she swiftly decided to settle there.
Now 18 years old, Godavari had been making a living by doing handicrafts part-time and working at a textile workshop. She was thankful many times as, due to the constantly increasing demand, finding a job in industries like textiles had become relatively easier for women than in other fields.
Upon learning about the new bill proposed by Her Majesty, Godavari wasted no time and promptly enlisted herself. With no parents or husband to hinder her, she signed up directly. After completing the application at the local post office in Kakinada, her workplace, she was instructed by the civil servant to prepare and pack her belongings.
That brings Godavari to Vijayawada, where she was taken to her dormitory, which was actually a room in the manor along with eight other women. The dorm had three large beds and they were asked to share a single bed for three people each. Since most of the girls who applied were from a similar status, they did not mind this arrangement.
After settling down, they were immediately called for the first class of the day, where the doctors approved by the Ministry of Health, along with obtaining the military service approval, Taught a class of 200 students each.
Godavari was sitting in the second row from the front, carefully observing what the teacher was saying.
"I know a lot of you are not literate and absolutely new to the field, but since we are in a hurry, I am only going to demonstrate something that you are required to do in your job, and no theory will be explained as of now.
After completing your service, if you wish to move further in this field, you can pursue this path then," said the doctor, who had a white coat on him matching his greying hair.
Saying that the doctor brought in a man who looked to be injured in his shoulder, his face distorted by pain, his breath fluctuating rapidly. The doctor did not mind this and had the man sit down immediately.
"Now, this is one of the many types of injuries you will encounter in your job," he said as he cleaned up the blood for the women to carefully look at the injury.
A lot of women fainted from nausea, and most of them had scrunched faces. Godavari, although disgusted, did not avert her gaze as she looked ahead without flinching.
"This right here is a stab wound. The first step is to have the patient drink this liquid called morphine, which is newly developed by the Academy of Sciences.
Now, this first step is optional as it is only used in the most severe cases where the patient is not able to resist the pain, or else it is not required," the doctor explained as he showed a vial and passed it to the front bench so that everyone could have a closer look at it after the students passed it around themselves.
Drinking the vial handed over by the doctor, the man’s face relaxed visibly as he became a little drowsy. "Now, the next step is to apply the available antiseptic and anti-infection drugs or herbs, whichever is available at your future hospital. If the vinegar liquid, which is one part concentrated vinegar and three parts water, is available, be sure to use it.
It is the cheapest and safest way to avoid infection, And also the standard issue in all the field hospitals ."
The doctor quickly poured the liquid from a similar vial onto the wound, which produced some white foam. Surprisingly, the patient only frowned slightly as the pain was not too much.
After using the vial containing the vinegar solution, the doctor passed it around so that everyone could remember the different-coloured vial, making it easy for the illiterate girls to remember.
"And the next part is in serious cases where the infection has already occurred. After doing the first few steps, which I taught you, take this vial in this colour and have the patient drink it. This is called penicillin, and it was recently developed by the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences. It is useful in healing the infection in the body, not only externally but also internally.
In more serious cases, the injury will be higher than your pay grade, so let the surgeons handle that," the doctor explained as he showed a yellow bottle and had the man drink it fully, after which it was passed on to the students.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
Next, the doctor took what looked like a silk thread and carefully stitched up the ugly gash on the patient, much like stitching up cloth.
"The body is very good at repairing itself, so once you have done the stitching, if left alone without being infected, it should heal itself.
When the wound is healed sufficiently and the skin is regenerated enough so the cut won’t be opened again, this thread could be removed in order to let the body complete the healing process and not to further complicate the wound by having fabric stuck in the body," he explained.
After taking out two types of threads again and showing them to the students, he continued, "This could be avoided by using a fibre made up of sheep or goat intestines, which is in my right hand, will dissolve in the body and cause no further effects, but such threads are hard to make, so most probably the silk thread will be exclusively used in your future work, which is in my left hand.
Catgut, the fibre made up of sheep and goat intestines, will only be used in rare cases where the wound is serious and removing the thread could potentially lead to the opening of the wound, But you don’t have to worry, as this procedure is done by the doctors in the field hospital ."
Similar classes were being held for different batches of the university at different locations across the empire throughout the month. These girls would learn the practical demonstration of first aid as well as the names of instruments used, including training in assisting the doctor during an operation.
Within two months, these girls would be ready, and the ones who finally passed the examination held at the end of the second month by ENEC would get to graduate and be stationed at the field hospitals currently being built at the front lines.
As for where all the patients in order to train these girls are coming from, these are actually actual patients who live in the surroundings of the university.
These patients come to the university due to the treatment being free, and as the doctors are present throughout the process, the mishaps could be reduced as much as possible.
Even though there are still a lot of casualties caused by this method, it is still positive for the empire, as these people who are mostly poor do not have enough money to afford a doctor, and the Empire does not have enough resources to implement cheap medical care. Hence, their lives would have been miserable either way.