Hyderabad’s well known and respected children’s activist known for crusading the rights of children born with birth-related problems, Gool Rustom Plumber, passed away in Hyderabad after a brief illness, on 17th October, 2018 at the age of 85.

Born in 1933 in Bombay, Gool studied at Tata Institute of Social Sciences as one of its earliest alumni, as also at Berkeley. She relocated to Bombay with husband Rustom Plumber in 1975 and set up the Association for the Welfare of Individuals with Cognitive Developmental Delay (AWICDD) the next year. As its General Secretary for over forty years, Gool facilitated resources which enabling AWICDD to render yeoman service to children with cognitive developmental delays.

Speaking on her demise, former secretary to the Prime Minister, K R Venugopal, commended her contributions, saying, “In her passing away, Telangana and Hyderabad have lost a civil society leader who dedicated her life to the defence and promotion of human rights of the most marginalised children and their mothers.”