He made her the representative in South India of the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust and entrusted her with setting up an institution in a rural area that would improve the lot of the poorest of the poor.

Dr.T.S.Soundaram threw herself wholeheartedly into this project that focused on healthcare, education, economic development and social welfare in the rural communities in the surrounding area.

In 1947, Soundaram started the Kasturba Hospital as a two-bed clinic in a house in Chinnalapatti, a small town on the Madurai Dindigul highway.

This was set up as a rural institution, in a remote place in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu to serve the most deprived of people.

Soundaram lost the 1967 general election from Dindigul (Lok Sabha constituency) to N. Anbuchezhian a young student leader of DMK with a margin of more than one lakh votes, subsequently she went back to social work and retired from politics.