Ila Ghose
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Ila Ghose (née Majumdar) (24 July 1930 - 11 December 2019) was a mechanical engineer and West Bengal's first woman engineer. She was the first female alumna of the Bengal Engineering College.[1]
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Ila Majumdar was born in the Madaripur subdivision, Faridpur district, East Bengal in 1930. She was one of six sisters and two brothers.[2] Her father, Jatindra Kumar Majumdar, was a deputy magistrate and her mother was a housewife. From a young age her interest in engineering was recognised.[1] The family moved to West Bengal, before moving to Calcutta in 1945. She was admitted to study at the Bengal Engineering College, where there was only one other woman in her cohort. In an interview in The Telegraph (India) in 2008, she said "There was only one other woman in the entire batch. The boys were shocked, but we soon became good friends. We would chat and crack jokes with them and cheer them on at cricket matches. Never did we feel uncomfortable."[2] Her fellow female student dropped out after one year, making her the first woman to graduate from the college.[1] She graduated in 1951.[1]