Radha Poonoosamy

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

{{Use Indian English|date=October 2019}}

Radha Poonoosamy (Tamil: ராதா பொன்னுசாமி படையாச்சி) (née Padayachee, 18 September 1924 – January 2008), was a Mauritian politician, the country's first female cabinet minister, and a feminist activist.

She was born Radha Padayachee on 18 September 1924 in Durban, South Africa.{{cite journal|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001/acref-9780195382075-e-1694|title=Poonoosamy, Radha - Oxford Reference|website=oxfordreference.com|year=2012|access-date=5 November 2017|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001|isbn=9780195382075|editor1-last=Akyeampong|editor1-first=Emmanuel K|editor2-first=Henry Louis|editor2-last=Gates}} She was born into a family of Indian ancestry.{{cite book|author1=Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.|author2=Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong|author3=Mr. Steven J. Niven|title=Dictionary of African Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA4-PA118|access-date=5 November 2017|date=2 February 2012|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-538207-5|page=4}}

She was educated at the University of Natal, where she was an "outspoken opponent of apartheid", and became a member of the Student Council of the Indian National Congress, which fought against anti-Indian discrimination in South Africa. She went on to become head of the women's section, and also a member of the executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC).

She married the physician Dr. Valaydon Poonoosamy, and they settled in Mauritius in 1952. She became a naturalized citizen, and continued her activism there within Mauritius's Labour Party.

In 1975, Poonoosamy was elected a Member of Parliament, becoming the country's first female minister, the inaugural minister in charge of the Ministry of Women's Affairs, and helped pass laws against sex discrimination.{{cite web|url=http://mauritiustimes.com/mt/sarita-boodhoo-76/|title=A Liberation Week: Women on the Move|date=15 March 2016|website=mauritiustimes.com|access-date=5 November 2017}}