The duty of an officer of the Indian Police Services is to maintain the law and order in India. This, given the vast nation we form a part of and the diverse communities we have, is quite the feat—and one that Indian women have been excelling at. Here is everything you need to know about the top women IPS officers of India.
Who Are IPS Officers?
Officers of the Indian Police Service are people who have appeared for and passed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams. Apart from passing the prelims, mains and interviews for the UPSC, IPS officers also have to clear a physical test to qualify. Once they qualify, IPS officers are deputed to command and lead all the departments of the government that maintain law and order in the country. A few departments to which IPS officers are posted are the National Investigative Agency (NIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Civil and Armed Forces, Central Armed Police Forces, the National Security Guards (NSG), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Crime Branch, Traffic Bureau and others in all states and union territories.
IPS officers are not simply bureaucrats, but have a key role to play in the internal defence of the country. The major responsibility they have is to exchange vital information with intelligence agencies and the federal law enforcement agencies of the nation to ensure that the law and order of the regions are maintained.
Women IPS Officers in India
In India, IPS officers have a history that stretches back to the nineteenth century. In 1861, the British government introduced the Indian Councils Act, and created the modern police bureaucracy known as the Superior Police Force. This name was later changed to Indian Imperial Police, and after independence, it became the IPS corps.
Women have not been a part of the IPS since its inception. It was only in 1972 that Kiran Bedi, the only woman in a batch of 80 IPS officers, became the first woman to qualify. Just a year later, Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya qualified as an IPS. Two years later in 1975, Jija Madhavan Harisingh became the first woman IPS officer from southern India.
Top 10 Women IPS Officers
Every year, there are more and more Indian women who qualify for the IPS and are given postings that they can make a difference to. Truth be told, there is no end to the women IPS officers who are making a difference in the nation every day. Here’s a list of 10 women IPS officers you should know about.
Kiran Bedi
Though retired now, Krian Bedi is very well known as the first woman to join the IPS in 1972. She remained in service for 35 years and has played a key role in many ways. She introduced remarkable reforms at Tihar Jail for which she gained worldwide fame. Bedi became the first Indian woman to be appointed Police Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2003 as a part of the Peace Keeping Operations Department. Between 2016 and 2021, she also served as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. She now runs the Indian Vision Foundation, and has also authored several books.
Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya
The second woman to qualify as an IPS officer, Bhattacharya was also the first woman to become the Director General of Police in India. Posted to Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for most of her 35-years-long career, she is perhaps best known for her work as the chairperson of the All India Women in Police. She won many accolades for her work, including the President’s Medals for meritorious services in 1989 and distinguished services in 1997, along with the Rajiv Gandhi Award in 2004. Bhattacharya died in 2019, at the age of 72, after a prolonged illness.
Sanjukta Parashar
Parashar, who qualified for the IPS in 2006, is very well known for the work she did in her posting in Assam. In fact, so remarkable were her achievements that she is better known as the Iron Lady of Assam. During her 15 months in Assam, she took down 16 Bodo militants, helped control the ethnic violence between Bodo militants and illegal Bangladeshi militants, and headed a CRPF team in Sonitpur’s terror-infested district. She also became the first Assistant Commandant of Makum in 2008.
Subhashini Sankaran
Born in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district, Sankaran passed the UPSC exams and qualified as an IPS officer in 2010. Since then she went on to become the first woman IPS officer to be put in charge of a chief minister’s security, when she handled the safety of Assam chief Sarbananda Sonowal. It was also during her posting in Assam that she busted a major rhinoceros poaching ring operating at the nearby Kaziranga National Park.
Aparajita Rai
Rai appeared for the UPSC exams twice and cleared them both times. During her second attempt, she scored the highest marks ever secured by a candidate from Sikkim, and qualified to become the first woman Gorkha IPS officer from the state. Since then, Rai went on to gather many accolades, including the Shri Umesh Chandra Trophy for Field Combat, the 55th Batch of Senior Course Officers Trophy, and the West Bengal Government’s trophy.
Dr Meera Chadha Borwankar
In 1981, Borwankar was posted as an IPS officer of the Maharashtra Cadre, where she served as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, and went on to become the first woman to head the city’s Crime Branch Department in 2001. She is credited for solving many reputed cases, including the Abu Salem extradition, the Jalgaon sex scandal, the Iqbal Mirchi case, and others. She witnessed the hanging of Yakub Menon in 2015, and was the inspiration behind the movie Mardaani. She has received many awards including the President’s medal in 1997, the Police medal and the Director General’s Insignia.
Dr Ruveda Salam
Salam became the first IPS officer, man or woman, from the valley of Kashmir when she qualified for the service. But before that, she completed her MBBS from the Government Medical College in Srinagar. Once she became an IPS officer, Salam was posted in Chennai as the Assistant Police Commissioner. In 2015, she decided to appear for the UPSC again, this time qualifying for the Indian Administrative Services. Since then, Salam has been posted as the Assistant Commissioner Income Tax officer in Jammu, where she inspires Kashmiri girls every day to appear for the UPSC.
Soumya Sambasivan
Sambasivan became Shimla’s first IPS officer when she qualified the UPSC exams in 2010. Once posted with the Himachal Police, Sambasivan started an investigation against the drugs mafia operating in the state—an effort for which she was nominated for the President’s Medal. During her posting at the Sirmaur district for two years, she solved six murder cases. To curb incidents of molestation in the state, she started teaching school and college girls how to make special pepper sprays using items they can find at home for regular use. This effort made the news in 2020, getting Sambasivan’s role the attention and accolades she deserved.
Merin Joseph
Born in 1990, Joseph became the youngest IPS officer to qualify for the Kerala Cadre at the age of 25 in 2012. She was trained at the Sardar Vallabbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad, and led the Indian Delegates for the Y20 Summit. In June 2019, Joseph took charge as the Commissioner of Kollam district, and came across a two-year-old child rape case. She travelled with her team to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to arrest the accused in the case, which got her and the case all the attention it deserved.
Sangeeta Kalia
Kalia passed the UPSC in 2009, and in 2010, she joined the Haryana Police as an IPS officer. It was, however, in 2015 while serving as the Police Superintendent in Fatehabad, Haryana, that Kalia gained a lot of attention. She had a very well reported argument with the state’s health minister, Anil Vij. The minister told her to “get out”, and when she refused to do so and stood her ground, she was transferred to a different district. After this incident, Kalia got immense support from all quarters for standing up to the misuse of power many politicians engage in.
How You Can Become An IPS Officer
Inspired by these amazing women IPS officers, if you too want to follow their footsteps and become an IPS officer, here are the steps you need to take.
• Apply for the UPSC exams. This exam is divided into three parts, the preliminary exams, the main exams and the interview. You need to pass all three to qualify for the IPS.
• In addition to these three exams, you also have to appear for a physical test to qualify for the IPS.
• In case you do not pass the UPSC exams in one attempt, know that many don’t. In fact, most people who qualify may make multiple attempts before passing the exams and all its stages with flying colours.
Conclusion
An IPS officer has a key role to play in the Indian bureaucratic system. The women who have qualified for the IPS since 1972—the year when Kiran Bedi qualified as the first woman IPS officer—have had remarkable careers in the services and have had a lasting impact on the system as well as the nation. All these women are inspirations for other women in the country to take up the IPS as a career and a calling. More than that, these women have shown that there are many ways to bring pride to and serve the nation, and maintaining law and order ranks quite high on that list.
Taking the UPSC exams, however, is no mean feat. It is, in fact, one of the most difficult exams of the nation, and people often prepare for years and make multiple attempts before getting the results they want or qualifying at all. So, if you are inspired, then think well before you walk down this road and commit to the preparation process properly.