Dr. Karkal worked for many years at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Bombay. She was a demographer who looked at human beings and not merely the numbers counting them. She also constantly emphasised the importance of looking at quality of life rather than talk in terms of numbers while discussing the issue of population.

Although she retired from formal institutions almost fifteen years ago, she has ceaselessly worked in popularising demography. She has written innumerable academic papers as well as articles for English and Marathi newspapers and periodicals. her work in generating a critique of national and international population policies from this perspective of looking beyond numbers and at quality of life, has been acknowledged worldwide and has also had a positive impact on decision making processes.

As part of the campaign against sex determination and sex preselection tests, she brought to notice the connection between the widespread prevalence of these and the apparent sanction to it through the government's policy of NRR1 -- which meant achieving replacement of every reproductive woman by one woman.She has also worked extensively on the issues of reproductive health like on long acting contraceptives, abortion, morbidity studies for women to name a few.

She is survived by her ideas, work, dreams and a large number of friends, supporters and admirers.