Dr. Madhu Aggarwal, a resident of Weirton, WV for over 30 years, was recognized by the City of Weirton for her work for over twenty years helping the uninsured and the needy in the Weirton area get obstetrics services. She was inducted into the Weirton Hall of Fame in a ceremony in October for Philanthropy.
In this award, the citizens of Weirton honor those who contribute to improving the world around them. Weirton’s citizens nominate individuals for their work in Business, Industry & Professions, Education & Religion, Music & Fine Arts, Philanthropy, Public Service, and Sports & Athletics. Among the past inductees are educators, athletes, musicians, businessmen, and community volunteers.
Weirton, adjacent to Pittsburgh, was once a buzzing steel-making city, with 13,000 people working in the steel industry at its peak in the 1960s. It had an ethnically diversified, and perhaps segregated, population of nearly 30,000. Today, steel is no more the lifeblood of Weirton. Weirton’s population is 20,000, with steel employing barely around 900 people. Today, the healthcare industry, retail services and steel are the major employers in Weirton, with healthcare and retail services, each employing over 1000 people, more people than steel. Weirton today is a bedroom community for people commuting to work in the Greater Pittsburgh area, including the businesses around the Pittsburgh airport.
Aggarwal founded in the 1980s an obstetrics clinic for the uninsured and underprivileged residents around Weirton, with support from the Weirton Medical Center and its OB staff. She also has helped found a clinic in nearby Steubenville, OH. In 2000, she instituted scholarships for college-bound students in schools around Weirton. She also volunteers at the Jubilee Soup Kitchen in Pittsburgh. The Patrika readers know of her and her husband Krishan’s association with the Hindu-Jain Temple. She was the president there, and is the chairperson of its board of trustees. She chairs a charitable foundation to serve poor patients in remote areas in India, treating thousands of people for free or at a nominal cost.
Madhu was born in Punjab, India. Her father was in the Indian military services and her mother, a teacher. After early schooling in Jammu and Rajasthan, she earned her medical degree from the SMS Medical College in Rajasthan.
She married Krishan, also a physician, in 1976. The young Aggarwals arrived in the US in 1977, with Madhu starting her residency at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh in OB/GYN. They moved to Weirton in 1983, starting their practice. Living in Weirton for over thirty years, they raised their two sons, Neil and Manu. Neil is a clinical psychiatrist at Columbia University, NY, and Manu is the marketing director for an e-Marketing company. Both are married. She loves Bollywood movies and songs, travel, and enjoys reading  whenever she finds time. She and her husband Krishan Aggarwal very recently moved to Moon Township.   — By K S Venkataraman (e-mail:  ThePatrika@aol.com.)   ♣