Bharti Singh

#15/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Today’s woman is short and sweet – quite literally. Standing at just 5 feet tall is Bharti Singh, the cutest stand-up comedian in India today. The reason she has made it to this list? Simply because she is currently the only known female in a career essentially dominated by men. Moreover, adding icing to the cake is the fact that unlike male stand-up comedians who have basically all thrived on double-meaning, pun-filled, typically adults-only acts, Bharti is essentially a household name because she provides wholesome, unadulterated, family entertainment which you can sit with your whole family – including kids – and enjoy.

Bharti Singh was born on 3 July 1986 in Amritsar, Punjab, India. She is a post graduate in history. During her college days, she was a gold medallist in pistol shooting and archery at the national level. But later she left it due to monetary problems. She started her career as a comedian and was the second runner-up of stand-up comedy reality series "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (Season 4)" on STAR One, where she received acclaim for her comedy characters including a child character named "Lalli". She has appeared in several TV reality and comedy shows and has also won many awards. Apart from shows, she has also appeared in Punjabi films like "Ek Noor" and "Yamle Jatt Yamle". She made her Bollywood début with the film "Khiladi 786". She has also showed her dancing talent in "Jhalak Dikhla Jaa". Currently she is seen in a comedy series on Colors. She has won many awards as well for her comedy acts like prestigious ITA Award, Indian Telly Jury Award and Lions Gold Award among others.

Bharti Singh was born into a middle class family. She was just two years old when her father died and her mother was left alone to handle three kids all by herself. Her mother preferred to struggle alone than to settle down with anyone else. Bharti, along with her elder sister and younger brother, had a tough childhood in her father's absence. However, having struggled her way to popularity, she is now known to charge almost at par with her male counterparts for each show. She’s an avid car lover and now owns cars like Mercedes and Audi Q5. According to the sources, Bharti is currently engaged to Harsh Limbachiyaa, who is the well-known writer of comedy shows on TV.


Source: Google search.

Seema Aziz

#14/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

From being the managing director of Pakistan's largest fashion retailer, to being the founder and chairperson of the largest NGO in Pakistan, which is also the world's second largest school system; Seema Aziz has come a long way in last 31 years. A commercial entrepreneur, social activist, educationalist and head of the renowned NGO, Care Foundation, the lovely Seema Aziz dons many hats. She is now often referred to as the ‘Pride of Pakistan’.

However, much before that, Pakistan society intended Seema Aziz to be a wife and mother. Her father arranged for her to get married at a young age, and by her early thirties she had a comfortable life as a Lahore housewife, married to a chemical engineer. Then she took charge of her own fate. In the late 1970s, well before the era of jihad, Pakistan was flooded with western products. People began wearing jeans and T-shirts, leading Seema to conclude that there was a market for high-quality Pakistani clothes produced locally. She opened her first shop in 1985, when she was 34, in Lahore’s ancient cloth market. Her family told her they were ashamed because she had gone into business, but her instincts were vindicated: the clothes flew off the shelves. Today she controls an empire of 450 Bareeze stores (translated as Blessing of God) across Pakistan and the Middle East. 

Seema and her brother, Hamid Zaman, started Bareeze 30 years back. Their aim was to create such a product in Pakistan, which would undoubtedly be the best of its kind. Their father had once bought a chikan embroidery machine, with which they started to work on their product. A chikan embroidery machine back in the day, was considered to be as luxurious and stand-out as a Ferrari. People used to be amazed at the idea of a woman opening up a clothing store in Lahore. But she never felt discouraged. They started in a small basement shop. They did face problems at every stage, but still managed to put everything together, in that Shadman-situated small shop. Right from the beginning, they were different, and their product was different. There were mistakes initially but they remained undeterred. And soon their first shop was launched on 6th April 1985.

Sefam, the parent company of Bareeze, was established in 1985 with the aim of manufacturing and retailing quality embroidered fabrics, equal in quality to the best in the world and made in Pakistan. Sefam started out with the Bareeze brand of embroidered designer fabrics but has now grown to a family of 12 brands, each of which are the largest in their category in the Pakistani market. By the mid 1990s Bareeze had emerged as one of Pakistan's most widely admired retailers, with shops in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Delhi, London, Manchester and Malaysia. Bareeze itself has made it to the list of Haute Couture which is a list of high end brands. It has managed to get onto that list by making extremely good quality clothing, particularly in ‘Salwar Kameez’. Bareeze now has shops in Pakistan and four other countries: India, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom. It also has a network of franchises.

Seema is the country’s most successful businesswoman, which in itself makes her amazing. What makes her extraordinary, however — and a figure who should be celebrated internationally — is something else. For the past 25 years, millions around the world have been buying elegant clothes and fabrics made by the said Pakistan-based textile maker but not many realize that their money helps educate Pakistan’s exploding and undeserved youth.

In 1988, there were floods in Pakistan. During these floods, entire communities outside Lahore were destroyed. That was when Seema reached out to them and made it a point to help those out in need. Seema had set up a factory in one of these villages, so she travelled to the stricken area. At first she concentrated on building new homes and delivering food and clean water. ‘There was no sewerage, no drinking water, no electricity, no roads,’ she recalls. ‘It was absolutely heartbreaking, only 15 miles outside Lahore, the cultural centre of Pakistan. I became like the pied piper, with hundreds of children following me around, all barefoot, matted hair, runny noses.’ Seema asked why the children were following her. She was told that there were no schools and they had nowhere to go. That was the light-bulb moment when she made the decision that would go on to transform the lives of so many of her fellow citizens. While helping the affected, she couldn't help wonder to herself what will happen to these people the next year when floods would envelop them again. She wondered about the difference between herself and those less fortunate and of course the difference without a doubt was that of education. These people needed serious help. Looking at those faces, the children out of school, nobody to help them and take charge of their problems and invest in them, she realised she was blessed with an education and a vision. That was when Seema decided to make opportunities for them in terms of education. When she planned on opening a free-of-cost school there, everyone thought she had gone crazy.

Her decision to set up a school and provide those children with an education did not meet with universal support, however. Many ridiculed her when some of the children who would attend her school didn't even have a home or a roof over their heads. Others told her that ‘The poor don’t want to study.’ Her response: ‘Everyone wants a better life for their children.’ ‘I put the money together, begging it from friends and family,’ she remembers today. ‘I counted the bricks. I signed every bag of cement so it wouldn't be stolen.’ The first school she opened was on 17th January 1991 on Sheikhupura Road. A total of 250 children could be seen standing outside the school, called Care One. These children were barefoot but had big smiles on their faces. The next year there were 450 children and so the numbers just kept multiplying. Today Seema operates 256 schools, many in rural areas. There are 180,000 children studying under the Care Foundation school programme currently. Some 9,000 children take their matriculation every year, where the passing percentage is that of 81 or 82. They give a sound education to boys and girls who would otherwise be illiterate, and many of her alumni have gone on to become teachers themselves. Others have trained as engineers, businessmen and women, doctors, surgeons, soldiers — their lives utterly transformed by Seema Aziz and her CARE schools. Indeed, they are now starting to change Pakistan itself, helping this beautiful but damaged country make use of the abundant talents of its population.

‘I wanted to give boys and girls an equal chance,’ she says. ‘There was no way I could segregate them.’ This challenged the rule that all schools should be single-sex. ‘For many years I was terrified,’ remembers Seema, ‘because I feared that if we failed we would take back the cause of education and freedom and equality.’ A setback came when her policy was attacked by a politician on religious grounds, forcing Seema to announce that the school would close its doors. The following morning 500 parents had gathered outside the school gates demanding that it should be kept open. The politician retreated. The second principle guiding Seema's schools is the teaching of English. This, too, was regarded by some as heretical: many leading Pakistani politicians, Imran Khan included, have insisted on the use of local languages. But Seema maintains that refusal to teach English amounts to apartheid, because it cuts pupils off from Pakistan’s cultural, business and political elite. ‘How can I say that my children will go to English schools, but I will open schools where children only study in Urdu?’ asks Seema. ‘We are educating the children of our nation, the future of our country. We must give them a fair chance.’ Equally controversial has been her third guiding principle: that her schools should charge a fee. ‘There are two things wrong with the idea of free education,’ says Seema. ‘People don’t have a stake in it, so they don’t take ownership. I don’t want any child growing up believing they are being educated on charity.’ After four years, Seema was ready to open a second school, and soon afterwards a third.

In 1998, the Punjab government, impressed by her success, asked her to take over a group of 10 failing government schools in the suburbs of Lahore. But, says Seema, ‘they had no toilets, no drinking water, no library. In some schools I found children doing guard duty, or massaging teachers’ legs, making tea, looking after teachers’ children. This was not education.’ For two years teaching unions blocked her reforms, but in the end she was successful. Today CARE educates approximately 175,000 children. Huge though the number sounds, however, it is still a drop in the ocean: there are estimated to be 52 million children in Pakistan, of whom barely half attend a school of any kind. Many of those who do are pupils at one of the country’s notorious government schools. 

While Seema herself was only allowed to study home economics at school (though she later went on to pursue her law degree in her mid-thirties), graduates from Seema's schools are an inspiring bunch. There’s 22-year-old Muhammad, who owns a call-centre business employing 30 people. Fatima, a confident young woman, also aged 22, won a scholarship to Lahore’s University of Technology and Engineering to read civil engineering. She now works as a consultant to a big firm and plans to do a Ph.D. Muhammad Azam, the son of a casual labourer, is now in the final year of a cardiology degree. There is no other graduate in his entire extended family. There’s also Umair Ali Akmar, a musical prodigy who regularly performs in front of the prime minister. But for CARE, she would never have learnt that she had any talent, let alone pursued a musical career.

Seema Aziz has spoken about CARE on global platforms such as the Clinton Global Initiative and the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs in North America (OPEN). She has made it to the list of Women Power 100, flanked by women from all walks of life, for her endless service and contribution to the under privileged. Although she’s still serving as an Executive Director of Sefam (Pvt.) Ltd., she’d more than anything like to expand CARE schools to teach one million children. ‘Because I believe education is the right of every child. We must reach every child. We want to change the destiny of this country. Because the thing about education is that it’s not one person that you are educating — it’s for ever. An educated person will never allow their child to be illiterate.’ 

Source: Google search.

Lisa Ray

#13/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Imagine having a successful career as a model and actor in Bollywood and Hollywood with a life full of excitement and media attention. And then suddenly; being plunged from the limelight into the darkness. That was what happened to the beautiful Lisa Ray; but she refused to bow before her dreaded illness and came out a survivor and an inspiration to all cancer patients. Lisa’s real life story runs like a Bollywood plot. An internationally acclaimed performer, philanthropist and actor with a reputation for taking on challenging issue-oriented films, Lisa was raised in Canada by an Indian father and a Polish mother. While on vacation in India, she was discovered by the modelling world and went on to become not only one of the most successful cover models in India but also an acclaimed, award-winning actor who starred in Canada’s Oscar-nominated film Water.

Lisa Rani Ray is an Indo-Canadian actress, model, television host, philanthropist and social activist. She was born on 4th April 1972 in Toronto to a Bengali Hindu father and a Polish mother and grew up in the suburb of Etobicoke. She spent some time of her childhood at Shyambazar, Kolkata, West Bengal. She excelled academically, doing five years of high school in four, while attending three different high schools: Etobicoke Collegiate Institute, Richview Collegiate Institute, and Silverthorn Collegiate Institute. She spoke Polish to her maternal grandmother and watched movies of Federico Fellini and Satyajit Ray with her cinephile dad.

Lisa came to public attention when she appeared in an advertisement for Bombay Dyeing wearing a high-cut black swimsuit in the 1990s, opposite Karan Kapoor. Subsequently, she returned to Canada to attend university to study journalism, but a car accident that injured her mother derailed those plans. Instead, she returned to India, where she appeared on the cover of Glad Rags wearing a red Baywatch-style swimsuit. The sensation that caused led to more magazine covers, spokesperson deals, and a job as host of her own show-business program. A Times of India poll named her the "ninth most beautiful woman of the millennium," the only model in the top ten. She also anchored the TV show 'Star Biz' on Star Movies, with actor / model Kelly Dorji. Lisa also appeared a music video for the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s 'Aafreen Aafreen', and then took an assignment to anchor a TV show.

After turning down a number of roles, Lisa made her Indian Film Industry début in 2001 with the Hindi film 'Kasoor', opposite Aftab Shivdasani, in which her voice was dubbed by Divya Dutta, because she could not speak Hindi. Her work in that film caught the eye of Deepa Mehta, who cast her opposite Rahul Khanna in the romantic Indian-Canadian romp 'Bollywood-Hollywood', in 2002. Realizing that acting was something that she wanted to pursue more seriously, she moved to London to concentrate on a career in the performing arts. While there, she studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama, The London Centre for Theatre Studies, The Desmond Jones school of Physical Theatre, and BADA. She graduated from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA), in 2004, with a post-graduate degree in acting. While studying, she made a conscious effort to not accept any film offers until she had graduated. However, while still at ALRA, she received another call from Deepa Mehta, who made her an offer she simply could not refuse — the lead role of Kalyani in Mehta's highly controversial and much-anticipated feature 'Water' starring John Abraham and Seema Biswas. Therefore, in 2005, she worked again with Mehta, in one of her most acclaimed Oscar-nominated film 'Water', in which she spoke her lines in Hindi, although her voice was dubbed in the final cut. It is set in 1938 and explores the lives of widows at an ashram in Varanasi, India. The film is also the third and final instalment of Mehta's Elements trilogy. It was preceded by 'Fire' (1996) and 'Earth' (1998). Since then, Lisa has worked in many productions from Canada, Europe, and the United States.

During the summer of 2009, Lisa scanned for multiple myeloma (a type of cancer). "I knew something was wrong for a long time, but I was such a triple type A personality that nothing less than a diagnosis of cancer would have made me make the changes in life that were needed," says Lisa. She was in shock initially, which was followed by denial but she never lost hope and tried to transform the experience into something which could help others. "My father’s love and support were unconditional and overwhelming. He slept in my hospital room in a cot while I was going through my stem cell transplant. I owe this remarkable man everything," Lisa says. "I believe in the power of prayers," she emphasises. Lisa has a basic belief that life is for her; not against her. "I'm stubborn. It never occurred to me that I might die; however, I knew it was not going to be easy. I worked hard – using meditation, positive affirmations and healers to re-frame my cancer as an experience from which a lesson had to be learnt. I didn't think of it as a bout of bad karma or a death sentence," she says.

In July 2010, Lisa was finally declared a survivor. Beating myeloma isn't easy but it is possible, stressed Lisa then. Going through treatment was very tough at times but humour and writing helped. "And sometimes just crying and letting my grief out helped too," she adds. She also researched a lot about alternative therapies and approaches to healing as well as letting her grief out; all of which helped as well. When asked how she feels about beating cancer and bouncing back into her earlier avatar, Lisa says, "I simply feel more comfortable with myself. Work and validation is not important. I have always marched to my own tune. I think you have to look inside yourself to find your truth and passion. I love acting but it is not the be all and end all of my life. I love writing as well as entrepreneurial activities. Remember I've been working since I was 16 and it is very hard to have such a long career in this business. I think what I am doing right is making up my own rules as I go along," she says. "At times I feel I've packed several lifetimes of experiences into this current life, and perhaps I should take it easy now. But then there’s always something fresh to explore," she adds.

Later in October 2015, Lisa revealed that the cancer had not been fully cured. “I was diagnosed with blood cancer which is considered incurable and I am still living with this condition,” said Lisa with a smile on her face. Preferring to look at the positive side of life, Lisa who was talking at a breast cancer awareness initiative said: “Cancer has transformed my life in so many ways. I drew so much support from people all around the world especially India because I was open about my cancer diagnosis. It did make me very nervous before making public because I didn't know how people would react. But thankfully, I received great support,” she had said.

She is currently wearing many hats and living her life on her own terms. At present, she is juggling her yoga studio in Toronto, investing in properties around the world, renovating a home in Mumbai, working on an upcoming film and writing a column for DNA; besides modelling and giving inspirational talks entitled 'More Beautiful for Having Been Broken'. She’s also the global brand ambassador for Insight Vacations and promotes travel in India. Her national cancer campaign – Beauty Gives Back – has just been launched in Canada. Besides all this, Lisa has been doing a lot of awareness and fundraising for cancer patients in Canada over the last few years. However, she feels even more work needs to be done in India. "I'm speaking to several individuals about a Cancer Institute and we are formulating a vision first," she adds. Basically spreading awareness has become part of the fabric of her life. She sees it as paying it forward as so many people helped her during her treatment.

Lisa is also working on her book which is to be published by Harper Collins and touches on her life experiences. Describing her reason behind writing the book she says, "I believe I'm a writer at heart but it was my diagnosis that prompted me to write 'The Yellow Diaries' and that was so well received that I was offered this publishing deal." Writing, acting, travelling, Cancer Institute, spending time with her hubby in Hong Kong and babies are on Lisa’s future plans. Her advise to people is "Hope is available to all us at all points of our time. Whether it is cancer or any other difficulties what we have to understand is life is not a cakewalk."

Note: I am purposefully choosing an image of hers with short hair and just after the difficult procedure of stem cell transplant because I believe she looks really beautiful in this picture. More importantly, the beauty comes from the radiance of hope and strength that emanates from her face and not any kind of make-up.

Source: Wikipedia and Google search.

Kiran Bedi

#12/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Today is International Women’s Day. How can I not post an inspirational story of an extraordinary woman. For today, I chose the woman who has since my childhood been the epitome of woman power for me, an example to be admired, emulated and shared: Dr. Kiran Bedi, India’s first woman to join officer ranks of the Indian Police Services.

Kiran Bedi was born on 9th June, 1949 in Amritsar, in a well-to-do Punjabi business family. She is the second of four daughters of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata (née Janak Arora). She has three sisters: Shashi, Reeta and Anu. Her great-great grandfather Lala Hargobind had migrated from Peshawar to Amritsar, where he set up a business. Kiran's upbringing was not very religious, but she was brought up in both Hindu and Sikh traditions (her grandmother was a Sikh). Her father helped with the family's textile business, and also played tennis. Her grandfather Muni Lal controlled the family business, and gave an allowance to her father. He cut this allowance when Kiran's elder sister Shashi was enrolled in the Sacred Heart Convent School, Amritsar. Although the school was 16 km away from their home, Shashi's parents believed it offered better education than other schools. Her grandfather was opposed to his grandchild being educated in a Christian school. However, Kiran’s father declared financial independence, and went on to enroll all his daughters, including Kiran, in the same school. Kiran started her formal studies in 1954, at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar. She participated in National Cadet Corps (NCC), among other extra-curricular activities. At that time, Sacred Heart did not offer science; instead, it had a subject called "household", which was aimed at grooming girls into good housewives. When she was in Class 9, she joined Cambridge College, a private institute that offered science education and prepared her for matriculation exam. By the time her former schoolmates at Sacred Heart cleared Class 9, she cleared Class 10 (matriculation) exam. Kiran graduated in 1968, with a BA (Honours) in English, from Government College for Women at Amritsar. The same year, she won the NCC Cadet Officer Award. In 1970, she obtained a master's degree in political science from Punjab University, Chandigarh. From 1970 to 1972, Kiran taught as a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar. She taught courses related to political science. Later, during her career in the Indian Police Service, she also earned a law degree at Delhi University in 1988 and a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi's Department of Social Sciences in 1993.

Inspired by her father, Kiran started playing tennis at the age of nine. As a teenage tennis player, she cut her hair short as they interfered with her game. In 1964, she played her first tournament outside Amritsar, participating in the national junior lawn tennis championship at Delhi Gymkhana. She lost in early rounds, but won the trophy two years later, in 1966. As the national champion, she was eligible for entry to the Wimbledon junior championship, but was not nominated by the Indian administration. Between 1965 and 1978, she won several tennis championships.

As a young woman, Kiran frequented the Service Club in Amritsar, where interaction with senior civil servants inspired her to take up a public service career. On 16th July, 1972, she started her police training at the National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. She was the only woman in a batch of 80 men, and became the first woman IPS officer. After a 6-month foundation course, she underwent another 9 months of police training at Mount Abu in Rajasthan, and further training with Punjab Police in 1974. Based on a draw, she was allocated to the union territory cadre (now called AGMUT or Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories cadre). Her first posting was to the Chanakyapuri subdivision of Delhi in 1975. The same year, she became the first woman to lead the all-male contingent of the Delhi Police at the Republic Day Parade in 1975. Her daughter Sukriti (later Saina) was born in September 1975.

Chanakyapuri was an affluent area that included the Parliament building, foreign embassies, and the residences of the Prime Minister and the President. The crimes in the area were mainly limited to minor thefts, but political demonstrations (which sometimes turned violent) were a regular occurrence. During the 1970s, there were many clashes between Nirankari and Akali Sikhs. On 15th November, 1978, a group of Nirankaris held a congregation near India Gate. A contingent of 700–800 Akalis organized a demonstration against them. DCP Kiran Bedi's platoon was deployed to stop the protesters and prevent violence. As the protesters resorted to brick-batting, Bedi charged them with a cane, although there was no tear gas squad to support her unit. One of the demonstrators ran towards her with a naked sword, but she charged him as well as other demonstrators with a cane. Ultimately, her unit was able to disperse the demonstrators. For this action, Bedi was awarded the President's Police Medal for Gallantry (1979), in October 1980.

In 1979, she was posted to Delhi's West District, where there were not enough officers to handle the high volume of criminal activity. To compensate, she started recruiting civilian volunteers. Each village in the district was night patrolled by six civilians led by an armed policeman. She enabled anonymous reporting of any knowledge about crimes. She clamped down on bootlegging and the illicit liquor business to reduce crimes in the area. Bedi implemented an open door policy, which encouraged citizens to interact with her. She implemented a "beat box" system: a complaint box was installed in each ward, and the beat constables were instructed to have their lunch near this box at a set time each day. She regularly asked people if they knew about the beat constable assigned to their area, and also walked with the constables to raise their self-esteem. Within 3 months, there was a reduction in crimes. There was a drop in cases related to "eve-teasing" (sexual harassment of women) and wife beating. This gained her the goodwill of local women, who also volunteered their services to help fight crime in the area.

In October 1981, Bedi was made DCP (Traffic). The preparation for the 1982 Asian Games had caused traffic snarls in the city. The construction of 19 sports stadiums and several flyovers had resulted in a number of blockades and diversions. Bedi encouraged coordination between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking and Delhi Development Authority. She clamped down on errant motorists with a heavy hand. She replaced challans (traffic tickets) with spot fines. Her team towed improperly parked vehicles using six tow trucks ("cranes") for traffic control. This earned her the nickname "Crane Bedi". On 5th August, 1982, an Ambassador car (DHI 1817) belonging to Prime Minister Office was towed away by sub-inspector Nirmal Singh, as it was wrongly parked outside the Yusufzai Market at Connaught Place. Singh was fully supported by Kiran and her superior Ashok Tandon. In the 1980s, Kiran Bedi attracted ire of Delhi politicians and lawyers. First, she ordered lathi charge on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assembly in Red Fort area, and arrested its leaders. A few months later, she arrested Congress (I) MP J.P. Agarwal for violating curfew orders.

In September 1992, her daughter Sukriti applied for a seat in Lady Hardinge Medical College (Delhi), under a quota for Mizoram residents, while Kiran Bedi was posted at Mizoram. Students of Mizoram launched a violent agitation against the allocation, on the grounds that she was a non-Mizo. Sukriti had topped the merit list with 89% marks, and was given seat from the Central pool, according to the government guidelines. Mizoram's Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla asked her to surrender the seat in "the larger interests of the state", although he accepted that "there was nothing illegal in her daughter getting the seat". Kiran Bedi refused to surrender the seat, saying that her daughter deserved the seat. As the protests turned violent, Kiran received threats that her house would be set on fire. Her superiors told her that they could no longer protect her. She left Aizawl after submitting her leave application. Her parents and daughter had already left for Delhi by this time. Lal Thanhawla accused her of insubordination.

After leaving her Mizoram assignment incomplete in September 1992, Bedi had to wait eight months for a new posting. In May 1993, she was posted to the Delhi Prisons as inspector general (IG). The Tihar Jail of Delhi was built as a four-jail complex with a capacity of 2,500 prisoners. However, by the time Bedi became its in-charge, its prisoner population varied from 8,000 to 9,500. About 90% of its inmates were undertrials, who had been accused of non-bailable offences. Some of them had been waiting for years to get a trial in a badly clogged court system. The prison had a budget of Rs. 15 crore, which was just enough to pay for basic expenditure, leaving little for welfare programmes. Tihar was notorious as a violent and unmanageable place, and no officer wanted to be posted there. The post had been lying vacant for nine months, before Bedi was posted there. Kiran decided to turn Tihar into a model prison. She introduced several reforms. She arranged separate barracks for the hardened criminals, who had been using their time in prison to recruit gang members, sell contraband and extort money. These prisoners unsuccessfully challenged her in court for unfairly segregating them. For other prisoners, she arranged vocational training with certificates, so that they could find a job after their release. During her tenure, Indira Gandhi National Open University and National Open School set up their centers inside the prison. Legal cells were set up to help the undertrials. She banned smoking in the prison. The move faced a lot of resistance from the staff as well as the prisoners. She introduced yoga and Vipassana meditation classes to change the prisoners' attitudes. She organized additional activities such as sports, prayer, and festival celebrations. She also established a de-addiction center, and pulled up or imprisoned the staff members involved in drug supply. A bank was also opened inside the prison. A bakery and small manufacturing units, including carpentry and weaving units, were set up in the jail. The profits from the products sold were put into the prisoners' welfare fund. She went on daily prison tours, observing the staff, listening to prisoners' complaints, inspecting food quality and evaluating overall management. She developed a panchayat system, where prisoners who were respected for their age, education, or character represented other inmates and met every evening with senior officers to sort out problems. She also established petition boxes so that prisoners could write to the IG about any issue. While the jail had suggestion boxes earlier too, the jail staff would destroy the complaints received through these boxes. On the other hand, the prisoners writing to her received acknowledgment and information about the status of their petition. In this prison reform programme, Bedi involved outsiders – including NGOs, schools, civilians and former inmates. As a result of Bedi's reforms, there was a drop in the fights and disturbances in the jail. Even the hardened criminals, who had been isolated in separate barracks, started behaving well. She then arranged for them to attend education and meditation courses. Her reform programme at Tihar received worldwide acclaim. But it also attracted envy from her superiors, who accused her of diluting prison security for personal glory. She was not on good terms with her immediate supervisor in the government, the Minister for Prisons Harsharan Singh Balli. Many members of Balli's party, the BJP, had not forgiven her for her lathi charge on the party's assembly in the 1980s. However, until March 1995, Kiran Bedi was on good terms with BJP's Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana. Khurana was a prisoner in Tihar during the Emergency, and appreciated her work for prisoners.

In 1994, Kiran Bedi was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Nehru Fellowship. The Magsaysay Foundation recognized her leadership and innovations in crime control, drug rehabilitation, and humane prison reform. The US President Bill Clinton invited her to National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.. When the Delhi Government refused to let her accept the invitation, she lobbied with the Union Home Ministry to get the clearance. However, the Home Minister S.B. Chavan declined the permission. Clinton repeated the invitation in 1995, and this time, she approached the media. The New York Times published a report stating that "several politicians and her superiors were feeling cut up with her assertive style and the success that followed her". Under pressure from the public and the media, Chavan allowed her to attend the Breakfast. However, this episode won her several detractors in the government.

Her removal from Tihar is also considered an episode of political vendetta. After her removal from Tihar, Bedi was posted as head of training at the police academy on 4th May, 1995. Her designation was Additional Commissioner (policy and planning). She served as the Joint Commissioner of Police of Delhi Police. Later, she served as the Special Commissioner (Intelligence) of Delhi Police.

In 2003, Kiran Bedi became the first woman to be appointed the United Nations civilian police adviser. She worked in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Before her retirement, she was serving as the Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development. In 2007, Bedi applied for the post of Delhi Police Commissioner. She was overlooked in favour of Yudhvir Singh Dadwal, who was junior to her, reportedly because the senior bureaucrats saw her as too "outspoken and radical". She alleged bias, and stated that her merit had been overlooked. She also proceeded for a three-month 'protest leave', but canceled it later. Journalists like Karan Thapar and Pankaj Vohra criticized her for crying bias, and stated that her service record was tainted with controversies. She resigned from police service in November 2007, citing personal reasons. She stated that she wanted to focus on academic and social work.

The Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation founded by her and her colleagues was renamed to Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007. Since its establishment, the Foundation received strong support from the local communities, as well several Indian and foreign charitable trusts and government bodies. It provided residential treatment to nearly 20,000 drug and alcohol addicts. It also started crime prevention programmes such as education of street children and slum kids. It established 200 single-teacher schools, vocational training centers, health care facilities and counselling centers for the vulnerable sections of society. In 2010, it also established the Navjyoti Community College, affiliated to IGNOU. Kiran also set up India Vision Foundation (IVF) in 1994. IVF works in fields of police reforms, prison reforms, women empowerment and rural and community development. In police reform area, Bedi emphasized better training, while opposing hazing of trainees. She opposed frequent transfers, stating that these lead to poor cadre management. She also proposed creation of a new level of police administration, which would protect rank-and-file officers from politicians and bureaucrats. In women's rights area, she has advocated equitable educational opportunities and property ownership (including co-ownership) for women. She has emphasized faster empowerment of rural women. During 2008 - 11, she hosted the reality TV show Aap Ki Kachehri on STAR Plus. In this court show, Bedi resolved everyday conflicts in a simulated courtroom. In 2008, she even launched a website to help people whose complaints are not accepted by the local police.

In October 2010, Arvind Kejriwal invited her to join him in exposing the CWG scam. She accepted the invitation, and by 2011, the two had allied with other activists, including Anna Hazare, to form India Against Corruption (IAC) group. Their campaign evolved into the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement. Anna Hazare planned an indefinite hunger strike to demand the passage of a stronger Jan Lokpal Bill in the Indian Parliament. On 16th August, 2011, Kiran and other key members of IAC were detained by the police, four hours before the hunger strike could start. She and other activists were released later on the same day. After twelve days of protests and many discussions between the government and the activists, the Parliament passed a resolution to consider three points in drafting of Lokpal bill.

Kiran Bedi split from IAC after a faction led by Arvind Kejriwal formed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2012. AAP went on to form a short-lived minority government in Delhi with Kejriwal as Chief Minister (CM). During the 2014 Indian general election, she publicly supported Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kejriwal, on the other hand, contested the election against Modi. After Modi won and became the Prime Minister of India, Bedi stated that she was ready to be BJP's CM candidate in Delhi, if such an offer was made to her. Eight months after Modi's election, she joined BJP in 2015. She was BJP's Chief Minister (CM) candidate for the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, in which Arvind Kejriwal was AAP's CM candidate. She lost the election from Krishna Nagar constituency to AAP candidate SK Bagga by a margin of 2277 votes, and AAP came to power again with an absolute majority after one year.


Source: Wikipedia. (There is so much information available on Kiran Bedi that this is just a concise extract from her Wikipedia entry.)

Shanti Tigga

#11/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Shanti Tigga was the first female combat soldier in the Indian Army. Women are allowed in the armed forces but only as officers in the non-combat units. Shati was the first woman to break that barrier. What is even more remarkable is that she achieved this feat when she was 35 and had two children. While most women are told to leave their jobs after they give birth to children, Shanti Tigga defeated all her other male counterparts during their physical tests. She completed the 50 m run in 12 seconds during her tests. On her 1.5 km run, she outran all of her other male counterparts to complete it with 5 seconds to spare till they caught up. Moreover, the firing instructors were so impressed with her skills in handling guns, that she earned the highest position of marksman. She was also awarded the title of best trainee.

Shanti did not even know that there had been no female jawan before her. She had joined Railways in 2005, on compensatory ground after her husband passed away (she had later remarried). Later, she learnt about TA Railways and volunteered for it. At that time, she was not aware of the fact that no woman had ever joined the Army as personnel below officer rank (PROB). But that was hardly a deterrent for her. She said that she always dreamt of joining the army and making her family proud.

Shanti passed away at the age of 37 in May 2013 under mysterious circumstances. She was, at that point, a jawan with the 969 Railway Engineer Regiment of the Territorial Army and posted as a points-man at Chalsa station in the district. She was allegedly kidnapped after her duties in the evening of May 9, 2013. She was found blindfold and tied to a post near the railway tracks the next morning. Shanti, however, said she was not physically harmed by the kidnappers. After the kidnapping, she was hospitalized at Alipurduar Railway Hospital. On May 13, 2013, she was found hanging with a 'gamchha' (traditional cotton towel) tied around her throat inside the cabin of the hospital. Her family members alleged that she was murdered. Some say she committed suicide because she had been accused of taking money from people in lieu of getting them jobs.

Not matter what, she would always be remembered as a woman carrying valour beyond compare.


Source: Google search.

Suzette Jordan

#10/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Suzette Jordan, in her own words, was just another woman. A simple woman who loved her family, loved her children and would not take crap. Except that Suzette was a rape survivor who had shown exemplary courage in 2013 and had waived her right to anonymity as a rape survivor and revealed her name and face on television. Until then she was only known as the ‘Park Street Rape victim’. But, she wanted to fight wide open so that people could see her and see her pain, she had reasoned. That was her way of fighting and she had truly nothing to be ashamed of.

On the night of February 5, 2012, Suzette Jordan went out with friends to have a couple of drinks at a nightclub in a five star hotel in Kolkata in February 2012. At the end of the night, she was thrown from a car onto the street, bruised, battered, gang-raped, her clothes ripped half off. She recounted to the traumatic event: “I tried to open the car but the door was auto-locked. He started to beat me up. When he shoved a gun into my mouth, I thought it was the end. I couldn’t breathe or swallow. I could taste my own blood. He was trying to strangulate me. And then he laughed. The others were cheering. I was consumed with fright and rage. It’s a terrible feeling — like you’re alive but somebody has buried you in a coffin. Even after he raped me, he beat me as if there were an age-old vendetta between us. But we didn’t know each other at all. He kept asking his friends to rape me. He had the power. And that made him feel good about himself.”

Barely alive, Suzette was thrown out of the moving car a few hours later. One thought gave her the strength to get home — “I am alive and I can see my children”. For three days, Suzette couldn’t leave the bed. She had two daughters and her older daughter, a teenager, stood beside her like a rock holding her, letting her cry, nursing her, and taking care of her. On day four, bolstered by family, she reached the police station. She made a conscious choice to file a complaint. People advised her to keep quiet, forget about it and that she would get into a lot of trouble. But she wanted to fight for justice.

Suzette found the experience of filing of the FIR horrible and humiliating. “Each and every policeman there came one by one and asked me, ‘Are you sure you were actually raped?’ ‘How was it possible to be raped in a car?’ ‘What were the positions in which you were raped?’ A prisoner in the lock-up there who had been held for the rape of an 11-year-old girl also heard the entire conversation!” She also recalls that the doctor at the public hospital, too, lacked compassion. Said Suzette, “He asked me to narrate my story in full public view. Then, during the physical examination, he actually commented on my tattoo. ‘Hmm. Nice tattoo,’ he said.”

Her determination to pursue the case cost Suzette. Her personal tragedy soon became a political football. The Chief Minister dismissed her case as a sajano ghatana (manufactured incident). Ministers made remarks about Jordan’s character – what kind of a mother would be out at discotheque so late at night? Over the next fifteen months, Suzette Jordan became a blurred image on our television screens, a silhouette, a disembodied voice with an identifying label: the Park Street rape victim. There was public humiliation at the hands of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who insinuated that her story had been cooked up to malign her government. She was dubbed a prostitute, stigmatised, denied employment. Then came death threats from her attackers. The comments about her character stung. “I’ve been a single mom for 11 years. Instead of saluting you for being a both mother and father, they cast aspersions on you. Oh, she’s a single mom. Her husband left her. She might have been a prostitute.” She says the “dignitaries” who make these remarks don’t realize the implications of what they are saying. “You called me a prostitute and you don’t even know me. And then you endanger the life of an actual prostitute. You are trying to say her word does not matter and anyone can do anything to her.” Yet, despite the odds, she never failed to speak of her “angels” — her family, friends, lawyers and police officers like Damayanti Sen, who investigated her case and concluded she was telling the truth.

The NGO Swayam supported her. But emotional support didn't pay the bills, and she was running out of money. She went for job interviews but once they saw the NGO reference in her CV, they would put two and two together. “Never ever till today has anyone gotten back to me,” says Jordan who started wondering “Am I really that worthless? Because I was at a nightclub? If nightclubs are so bad then shut them down.” Her confidence was shattered. “I started taking so many anti-depressants, sleeping tablets. I had nightmares. I would wake up screaming. I was a mess. I was hurting myself. Had it not been for my parents and my babies, I definitely would have been dead.” Women’s activist and entrepreneur Santasree Chaudhuri also tried to get her a job. “With my background and social contacts, it’s not very difficult for me to get anyone a job in Kolkata,” says Chaudhuri. “I’ve been into women’s activism for twenty years. I empower women by giving them jobs.” She didn’t hide Jordan’s identity from those she approached. “They all said OK, I’ll get back to you. I just waited for the return call. Till today no return call. And these are very good friends.” In the end, Chaudhuri hired Jordan at a helpline she started called Survivors For Victims of Social Injustice. The remuneration was at best modest. 

Suzette, born in 1974, truly celebrated life. There were many terrible days at court. She had very few means, was finding it hard to get a job. But she pursued happiness with determination. “Just because I have been raped, people feel I have no right to live and I certainly have no right to be happy. I feel as if I am being blamed for being alive. But why shouldn’t I enjoy life?” she would say. Suzette grew into an iconic figure, raising the humanitarian concerns of survivors of sexual violence at various forums with great eloquence. So sparklingly alive was she that her death came as a terrible shock. In March 2015, Suzette, at the age of 40, succumbed to meningoencephalitis. Nevertheless, on December 10, 2015, the city sessions court, Kolkata found all five of the accused guilty. The accused have been convicted under 120 (B) (Criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (Voluntarily Causing Hurt), 34 (Common intention), 376(2)(g) (Gang Rape). At the time of her death, three of the five men accused of raping Jordan inside a moving car had been arrested and were on trial, although they denied the charges. The remaining two, including the main suspect, had not been arrested. The names of the accused are: main accused Mohommad Ali and Kadir Khan who are still absconding, and Nasir Khan, Ruman Khan (Nishat Alam alias Ruman Khan alias Tussi) and Sumit Bajaj who are serving sentences.

Suzette had said: “If I had chosen to just accept injustice submissively, I would never be the right role model for my daughters.” In the process, she became a role model not just for her own daughters but for many other women who draw strength from her story. 

Source: Wikipedia and Google search.