Durgabāi Deshmukh (née Gummididala, 15 July 1909 – 9 May 1981) was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social worker and politician.

[2] Durgabai Gummididala was born on 15 July, 1909 into a Vaidiki Brahmin family from Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, British India.

Though she had parted ways with Subba Rao, she supported his widow Timmaiamma after his death.

She was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi in India's struggle for freedom from the British Raj.

[10] She was a prominent social reformer who participated in Gandhi-led Salt Satyagraha activities during the Civil Disobedience Movement.

As the Board's first chairperson, she mobilized a large number of voluntary organizations to carry out its programs, which were aimed at education, training, and rehabilitation of needy women, children, and the disabled.

She was the first to emphasise the need to set up separate Family Courts after studying the same during her visit to China in 1953.

She was the first chairperson of the National Council on Women's Education, established by the Government of India in 1958.

[13] In 1959, the committee presented its recommendations, as follows: To commemorate her legacy, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam has named its Department of Women Studies as Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh Centre for Women's Studies.

[8] Durgabai Deshmukh was then elected to the Constituent Assembly from the Madras Province.

[16] She proposed a period of fifteen years of status quo to enable all the non-Hindi speakers to adopt and learn Hindi.