This group of pediatric surgeons approached the parent Association of Surgeons of India (ASI) to start a section devoted to pediatric surgery during the Silver Jubilee Conference of the ASI held in 1964 at Mumbai. The then ASI President Dr. R. N. Cooper and Secretary Dr. A. Venugopal allowed the discussion and after a lengthy debate, the proposal was approved. Dr. Arthur de Sa was elected the first president and Dr. R. K. Gandhi the first Secretary cum Treasurer. The section made rapid progress by learning, inspiring and competing with each other in creating history, which turned out to be good for the growth of pediatric surgery in India. The first conference of the Pediatric Surgeons was held in Delhi in 1966. In 1979, the IAPS was converted as full- fledged separate speciality. The first constitution of IAPS was adopted in 1967 and the present constitution was adopted in 2008. The IAPS continued to have their annual conference alongside the annual conference of ASI. In addition to these, a mid-term conference of pediatric surgeons was started from 1967, which was held every second year and since 1984 it is held every year. Due to the popularity of mid-term conferences, in 1990 it was decided to change the terminology to annual conference of the IAPS and only sectional meetings were continued along with the annual conferences of Association of Surgeons of India. In 1994, the IAPS separated from the ASI. With the advent of minimally invasive procedures and the number of paediatric surgeons specialising in these advanced procedures, a need was felt to form a separate subsection to encourage growth in this new field. During the laparoscopic workshop organised at B. Y. L. Nair Hospital, Mumbai in 2004, it was decided to launch an organisation of pediatric surgeons interested in the field of endoscopic pediatric surgery. The formal “Pediatric Endoscopic Surgeons- India” (PESI) was launched in the meeting at Coimbatore in 2005 and later on the section was converted officially as the section of IAPS (2007). PESI- IAPS is one of the most active sections and has its annual conference with workshop since the last 10 years. Subsequently “Pediatric Urology Section of IAPS” and “Research Section of IAPS” were started and they are active since last five years and have their regular annual conference with workshop. The oncology section, Thoracic Surgery are recent additions.

The Present IAPS is now a towering Association, led by 50th President and 25th Secretary General and is currently on the cusp of Transformation matching the new era of technology.