Dakshayani Velayudhan (1912-1978) was one of the 15 women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly. She was a freedom fighter, social reformer, educationist and parliamentarian..

    There were many firsts and distinctions in Dakshayani’s life – Belonging to the Pulayar community; she was among the first generation of people to get formal higher education from the community. She was the first Harijan woman graduate in the Kerala state, a science graduate, the first and only Harijan women member both in the erstwhile Cochin Legislative Council and the Constituent Assembly of India.

  At 34, she was also the youngest in the Constituent Assembly. Dakshayani was born in 1912 in a dalit family in Mulavukad, an isolated Island in Ernakulam. She belonged to the Pulaya caste. Her father Kunjan was a school teacher he local school at the age of six. Her school education was at St Mary’s school Mulavukad and MLC School,....