An officer and a lady... musings on my journey

An Officer and A Lady – Musings on my journey

My father was in the Army. I was fascinated by his uniform and by all the shining brass that adorned it. As all children do, I wore his beret as a child to see how I looked in it. I remember the sense of pride I felt, even then.

Two decades later when all my friends in college were applying for the IIM common admission test, I enrolled for an MA instead and waited till I was 21 so that I could give the UPSC exam and salute the same flag that my father did, albeit in another colour of uniform. Clichéd, but true. My parents unquestioningly supported me at every step. Not knowing how tough the exam was supposed to be and not being in the hub where civil services aspirants struggle together on a daily basis, helped greatly. Ignorance is bliss and I was spared the pressure that colleges in Delhi put on Civil services as a mission to accomplish or perish. Bombay, then, was more about Chartered accountants and MBAs. I was considered quite an abnormality for wanting a ‘sarkari’ bureaucrat’s life. I saw it differently though and plodded on, regardless. Holed in a very small room with a tin roof in the heat of Hyderabad’s summer, I was grateful for the Parasuram family I was staying with. They took care of me and left me to my studies. I emerged periodically from my room and was promptly rewarded with lip smacking food. God’s grace, Parasuram aunty, Rau’s IAS Study Circle, Mr. Panduranga Reddy, my history tutor at the Study Circle and hardwork, in that order, paid off and I got through. I was allotted the Indian Police Service and a few months later while I was undergoing my Foundation course in LBSNAA Mussoorie, Bhaskar tailor came with his team from the National Police Academy to take measurements for stitching my uniform. A dream was about to come true.

My training period was one of the best phases of my life and gave me the knowledge, skills and the attitudes to excel at my trade. I got allotted the Uttar Pradesh cadre and was soon made ready by the Academy for taking on the world. Being a police officer and a lady to boot has its advantages and disadvantages. I was an IPS officer in the state of Uttar Pradesh with very few lady officers before me. And so, in my initial years, I had visitors who came only to see me, their complaints and grievances being purely incidental. Men who had grievances nudged their women forward while talking to me while the women stood tongue tied and shy in front of me, just happy to see one of their own kind in khaki. My own emotions were mixed. While I realized that this kind of adulation and speculation was inevitable when women in uniform were still a minority and therefore to be viewed as oddities, it caused me immense annoyance as I saw myself not as a woman with privileges but purely as an Indian Police Service Officer having trained on par with my male colleagues. There are many firsts when you are a rarity and yes, a lot of publicity. When I walked, they said I ran and when I ran, they saw me on horseback. I was fortunate to have a sporting background and played almost every game in school and college. I had national records in hurdles and pentathlon, 6 national medals and over 200 other medals over my 7-year athletics career. I was the state schools runner up in table-tennis and played active squash and badminton, in addition to basketball and volleyball. I could finish a game of carrom in two chances and my athletics coach was convinced that I had fallen into a cauldron of calcium as a child. In other words, I was cut out to be a police officer, right from the word go. Public perception is, however, based on each person's socialisation process. Therefore, earning the respect of the ones you serve and the ones you command, both take time. Commanding the Republic Day parade in my district, turning up at every heinous scene of crime when nobody insisted that I do and working all hours of the night, helped. Sometimes a lady officer has to run very fast to remain at the same place. But things fall into place and in time, I found that I could be what came naturally to me and yet gain respect. I did not need to walk, talk and act like a man to gain acceptance in the Force.

Six questions that people never failed to ask.

1.    Why did you join the IPS?

2.    Were you inspired by Kiran Bedi?

3.    Have you seen Udaan?

4.    Is your husband also in the police?

5.    How do you balance your work and life?

6.    Do you manage time for your children?

Six questions I am sure my male colleagues were not asked.

1.    Why did you join the IPS?

2.    Were you inspired by KPS Gill?

3.    Have you seen Singham?

4.    Is your wife also in the police?

5.    How do you balance your work and life?

6.    Do you manage time for your children?

To put things in perspective:-

·      The Indian Police Service got its first lady officer in 1972.

·      The Indian Army started recruiting women officers in the year 1992.

·      Sashastra Seema Bal was the first border guarding force to deploy women personnel on the border in 2008 and was the first Central Armed Police Force to be headed by a lady IPS officer of 1980 batch, in 2016.

·      There are over 950 women IPS officers today out of a total of over 4000 IPS officers. These officers have joined IPS of their own volition and on their own merit. There is no reservation for women in the IPS and there should not be.

·      On the other hand women were a part of the Naxalbari uprising in the sixties and form almost 45% of the Naxal cadre today.

While the stories of women at work will continue to invite attention due to their sheer lack of requisite numbers, allusions to superhuman acts and goddesslike qualities come from a basic lack of expectation and an inherent disbelief in their capabilities. There is a protectiveness that is visible when decisions on whether or not to accept women into combat roles are mulled over again and again. A question like ‘Will they be able to perform in a male dominated profession? Are they even required?’ stems out of a feeling of physical and intellectual superiority. Most organizational decision making groups then proceed to define roles that they feel might be suitable to women. Are all men intellectually superior to women? Are all women physically weaker than men? Definitely not. But popular perceptions are based on stereotyping. It is complicated but also true that gender stereotyping has restricted mainstreaming and thereby affected development adversely. Quality takes a back seat in these situations.

         After working for 9 years in the state of Uttar Pradesh in various districts and various capacities ranging from crime control, law and order in district policing to heading armed battalions, intelligence, vigilance, headquarters, etc  I proceeded on central deputation to the Govt of India and joined the SVP National Police Academy, Hyderabad as an Assistant Director. I was part of a team of officers who introduced integrated method of teaching and modular training for IPS probationers, which continues to this day. I had also prepared a module for gender sensitization of police officers for the National Commission for Women. After over five years in the Academy which also included a stint for a year at the UN Mission in Kosovo as a Civilian Police Officer, I joined the Sashastra Seema Bal, a border guarding force on the open borders with Nepal and Bhutan. I was heading recruitment initially and raised 20 battalions in 2 years using transparent e-recruitment software, a first for any paramilitary force at the time. I went on to head the SSB Academy at Gwaldam where specialized courses of counter insurgency and jungle warfare and mountaineering courses were held. Gwaldam was another milestone in my career as it gave me an opportunity to breathe life into an institution that had almost perished due to neglect and low morale.

On my return to UP, I, as part of the National Police Mission conceptualized and piloted the first recruitment of over 35000 constables using transparent recruitment process. It was called Project TRP and became the model for implementation all over the country. The then Home Minister, Shri P Chidambaram mandated that TRP be used for recruitment in all the states, failing which no modernization grant would be extended to them. Over time, TRP became the norm. It is now an integral part of the SMART policing initiative.

In my second stint in the centre, I was fortunate to return to my previous force SSB as Inspector General Personnel and Training and will soon complete 5 years this year. There is so much work that has been done and is still being done in both personnel and training as we aspire to create a Brand SSB and reach an ideal state of zero grievances. I have an outstanding team and we have tried to raise the bar and move the goalpost in every endeavour we have been part of.

During the course of my narrative, as the editor breathes down my neck to hand in my article, I become conscious of the fact that I am being asked to contribute as a lady officer. To be honest, there have been very few occasions in my career that I have thought of myself as a lady officer. The work I have done reflects my ethos as an IPS Officer, not as a lady IPS officer. I feel happy in knowing that the respect I have gained is purely attributable to the hard work I have put in and the quality I have endeavoured to produce. Writing an article talking about work life balance somewhere trivializes both work and home and somehow suggests that work and life are two different things. I have juggled my commitments, availed of maternity leave, child care leave as was required and still take care of my parents and children while being a confirmed workaholic and perfectionist. But why would anyone be interested? I made this choice and there is a price to pay for every choice that we make. I was and am willing to pay that price.

Suffice it to say that I came into the man’s world of policing 28 years ago. A world where bullet proof vests and body protectors are made for flat chested individuals, barracks presuppose that concepts of privacy for men and women personnel do not differ, a world where women personnel do not drink water for a day before a law and order duty because there is no place to relieve herself while on duty, where women who do not form part of the boys clubs are uncomfortable to be around, where toughness means male and sensitivity means female.

I, on my part, have tried to change the conditions for others less fortunate than me, where I work. SSB has an overall strength of 2.36% female representation, which will reach 5% by 2020. In all future recruitments we will be providing horizontal reservation of 15%. We were the first border guarding force to deploy women personnel on active combat duty. We started out with 7 Battalions in 2007 and will touch 28 Battalions by 2019. Increasing numbers is the first step to normalize the situation. The question is are we ready for the numbers, or not? I did a detailed study on ‘Creating a gender sensitive and gender friendly infrastructure ‘ for the National Conference for Women Police and presented it before policewomen and men from all over the country. This was documented and given as a set of recommendations to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The issues raised were then taken up in Parliament and soon enough the recommendations of the report were sent to all organisations for compliance. A few years down the line, we should see a change in procurement patterns as well as encounter heightened sensitivity to the need to provide equal opportunities for growth to both women and men. In times to come, the Forces will not only be manpower ready but also womanpower ready and I am fortunate to have had a role to play in it.

To reduce 28 years of service to 7 pages does not do justice to either the effort or the years of service. So I will not profess to have done so. I have done all that a cop is expected to do, trained to do and mandated to do. I have tried to find happiness in the smallest of successes and grieved with my ilk as I lent my shoulder to the hearses of those who have made ultimate sacrifices. I have been touched by kindness and inspired by the strength of character that I have encountered in people I have met along my journey. I have not dropped the baton. I will carry it to the finishing line.