Mumbai: India’s first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi has said that she could have become the first woman police chief of the national capital had she made some compromises.
“I could have compromised to become the Delhi CP but I did not. Had I done so, my self-esteem would have gone down,” Bedi said at a day-long symposium titled ‘Women Changing India’ organised by USA’s Barnard College .
During the panel discussion on ‘Conversations on Social Activism,’ the cop-turned-activist said that some bureaucrats and politicians “conspired” to see that Delhi did not get a woman police chief.
Other than Bedi, the session had Mirai Chatterjee, director of social security at Self Employed Women’s Association; Shaheen Mistri, founder of Teach for India, and Gita Sen, professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, as speakers.
“Women are critical stakeholders in India. They are leaders in their communities, in economic development, in activist movements, in corporate board rooms — their influence is really at the heart of everything happening here,” Debora Spar, president of Barnard College, said.
Another panel discussion titled ‘Voices of the Region’ saw speakers including Nandita Das, Farah Khan, journalist Mallika Kapur and architect and conservationist Brinda Somaya highlighting major contributors to arts and media in India.
The discussion on ‘Empowering women through enterprise’ drew high-profile women leaders like Vedika Bhandarkar, managing director and vice chairman of Credit Suisse India; Chhavi Rajawat, sarpanch of Soda village in Rajasthan; Shaina NC etc.(PTI)
