Bilquis Bano Edhi

Full Name

Bilquis Bano Edhi (بلقیس ایدھی)

Birth & Early Life

• Date of Birth: 14 August 1947

• Place of Birth: Bantva, British India (now India)

• She migrated to Pakistan with her family around the time of partition in 1947.

Education

• Basic/Schooling: Bilquis Edhi is reported to have joined nursing training early in life — even before completing higher secondary school — when she joined the Edhi Nurses Training Centre around the mid-1960s.

• Nursing Qualification:
  She trained as a professional nurse at the Edhi Nurses Training Centre in Karachi.

• Formal University Degree:
  There is no widely cited public record of a university degree (e.g., BSc Nursing) — her expertise and training were primarily through hands-on nursing education and service work rather than a standard degree program.

👉 In short: her education was in nursing and humanitarian care — learned in practice and training rather than formal academic degree progression.

Marriage & Family

• Husband: Legendary Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi — founder of Edhi Foundation. They married in 1966 when Bilquis was a young nurse at the Edhi dispensary.

• Children: Four — Faisal, Kubra, Zeenat, and Almas.

Bilquis and Abdul Sattar Edhi lived simply and devoted their lives to public service, often residing within the Edhi Foundation premises itself.

Career & Humanitarian Work

Nursing & Early Work

Bilquis began her service journey by training as a nurse and then working directly in maternity clinics and dispensaries, especially serving the poorest communities in Karachi.

Edhi Foundation

She became a pillar of the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest nongovernmental humanitarian organisation, which was founded by her husband in 1951.

Key Roles in Edhi Foundation:

• Headed maternity homes and childbirth care.

• Supervised the world-famous “Jhoola (cradle) scheme” where abandoned babies could be safely left at any Edhi centre — a practice that saved tens of thousands of newborns.

• Managed adoption services, ensuring abandoned children found safe homes and care.

• Oversaw welfare services for women and children across Pakistan.

For decades she was recognized as the maternal heart of the organisation, loved and respected by people of all backgrounds.

Awards & Honors

Dr Bilquis Edhi received numerous prestigious awards for her humanitarian work:

🌟 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service (1986) — the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
🌟 Hilal-i-Imtiaz — Pakistan’s second-highest civilian award.
🌟 Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice (2015).
🌟 Title “Person of the Decade” in 2021 by Impact Hallmarks for her social impact.
🌟 Other recognitions included international peace prizes and global mentions among most influential Muslims.

Impact

• For over six decades, Bilquis Edhi dedicated her life to serving society, especially the poor, orphaned, abandoned children and women in need.

• Edhi Foundation’s Jhoola scheme alone helped save more than 42,000 unwanted babies by offering safe abandonment instead of infanticide or neglect.

• She was widely known as “Mother of Pakistan” for her compassion, courage, and lifelong service.

Her work went beyond routine charity — she was instrumental in transforming social welfare services in Pakistan into one of the most humane and respected networks of care in the developing world.

Later Life & Death

• Bilquis Edhi suffered from cardiovascular disease in her later years.

• She passed away on 15 April 2022 in Karachi, Pakistan, at the age of 74.

• Tributes flowed from across Pakistan and abroad, honoring her lifelong service.

She is buried in Mewa Shah Graveyard in Karachi.

Legacy