Eminent Bidar-based surgeon S.S. Siddareddy, who was instrumental in popularising the two-child family concept in the backward Hyderabad Karnataka region, died at a private hospital in Bengaluru in the early hours of Friday after brief illness.
His last rites were performed at his farm at Aliabad.
Dr. Siddareddy (81) was the founder president of Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) in Bidar and the force behind opening FPAI branches in Kalaburagi and Raichur districts.
His significant achievement was to convince conservative Muslim families of Bidar about the small-family concept. He was also the former national vice-president of the FPAI.
Popular in the region for his simple ways, Dr. Siddareddy ran the FPAI office and hospital from his home for many years. Owing largely to his vasectormy camps and surgeries, Bidar in 1975 topped the list of districts with the highest number of vasectomies in the country. BBC had also featured the FPAI Bidar branch.
Originally from Vijayapura district, Dr. Siddareddy did his MBBS and MS in ENT from the K.M.Hospital in Mumbai in the 1960s. He came to Bidar on a government posting and settled down there at a time when the backward area had no medical facilities.
He was also a successful farmer.
He is survived by wife Guramma, former chairperson of the Karnataka State Women Commission; son Vikram Patil and daughter Rajashree Reddy.
