C. Ramasubramanian

Ramasubramanian took his undergraduate and postgraduate medical qualifications, including a diploma in psychological medicine, at Madurai Medical College. He later completed a doctorate in community psychiatry at Madurai Kamaraj University, awarded in 2012 and described as the first of its kind in that field.

He entered the Tamil Nadu Medical and Health Services in 1979 and rose to be professor and head of psychiatry at Madurai Medical College. He has worked in mental health for more than forty years.

In 1992 he established the M.S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation in memory of his father, M.S. Chellamuthu. The initiative grew out of his experience of caring for a brother with mental illness and of the stigma the family encountered. The trust provides holistic, affordable mental health care and rehabilitation, and is recognised as a research centre by the government's science and technology council. An associated institute of mental health and rehabilitation trains professionals in the field.

After retiring from government service Ramasubramanian was appointed state nodal officer for the Tamil Nadu mental health programme, and his tenure was extended by five years. Under the programme the District Mental Health Programme was extended across a large number of Tamil Nadu districts, more than in any other Indian state, and full-time psychiatrists were placed at district headquarters hospitals. He has also served as state nodal officer for the Tamil Nadu government's police wellbeing programme. The district mental health work in Madurai was rated the best in the country, and a related programme in Ramanathapuram district was recognised by the Australian government, leading to an India–Australia collaboration.

Ramasubramanian received the Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer Award in 2016. The M.S. Chellamuthu Trust received the national award for the best institution for the empowerment of persons with disabilities in 2007.[2][3][4][5][6]