Kiran Bedi

Kiran Bedi is an Indian politician, social activist, former tennis player and a retired police officer. Kiran Bedi was born in Amritsar, Punjab on June 9, 1944 to Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata. Inspired by her father, Bedi started playing tennis at the age of 9. She continued playing tennis at the age of 30, when she started focusing on her IPS career. In 1972, she married fellow tennis player Brij Bedi

Bedi started her career as a lecturer of political science at the Khalsa College for Women in 1970. After 2 years of her teaching career, she cleared the civil services examinations and became an IPS officer. This made her the first Indian woman to do so. She won many accolades for her examplary service.

Being a woman, initially she was not taken seriously but soon her efforts began to bear fruit. In 1979, Bedi 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. Due to her vigilant and innovative measures, within 3 months, there was a drop in cases related to "eve-teasing" 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). 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 5 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 Bedi and her superior Ashok Tandon.

Kiran Bedi introduced a number of reforms in the management of Tihar Jail, Delhi when she was the Inspector General of Prisons during 1993-95. The various changes introduced by her under this mission witnessed positive changes in the lives of the citizens. This short stint of her remembered as a golden period in the history of the prison and won her many awards. On Dec. 25, 2007, she retired to dedicate herself to social work.

In August 2011, Kiran Bedi joined the India Against Corruption movement, led by Anna Hazare. She was a prominent face in the movement along with Arvind Kejriwal but parted ways with him when the latter formed ‘Aam Aadmi Party’.

Angad Ji Saggu

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