Woman of steel: Dr Kiran Bedi

DR KIRAN BEDI, India's first and highest ranking female police officer and former Inspector General of Prisons.

I have always been a rebel, and spoken out against what I thought was unjust. I have worked for human rights, women's rights and police reform.

My childhood is filled with beautiful memories.

I was taught by Belgian Catholic nuns at the Sacred Heart School in Amritsar, Punjab. They tried to teach me to knit, stitch and embroider, but I was much too tomboyish.

Instead I participated in all outdoorsy activities.

Every day I played tennis with my sisters – Shashi, Reeta and Anu. (I am the second child.) Those days were fun. We would voraciously eat mum's food, and argue and strategise before tennis tournaments.

At university I won the national junior tennis championships. I have enjoyed being the first student to hold an academic scholarship and a championship title. I topped the Punjab University in my Masters in Political Science.

I was always unanimously elected to represent my classes for various activities. I was an orator, best athlete and best NCC (National Cadet Corps) cadet, and a national junior and senior tennis champion and an Asian Tennis Champion in 1972, months before I joined the Indian Police Service.

I draw strength from family

My husband, Shri Brij Bedi, and my parents, Prakash and Prem Peshawaria, have been true pillars of strength.

Brij was a fellow tennis player, a textile engineer and is a social activist in Amritsar. He runs a school for children of parents who are into substance abuse. Most of the children are fatherless. My daughter, Saina, and son-in-law, Ruzhbeh Bhurucha are documentary makers.

They help with my work with NGOs. I am also a grandmother to nine-month-old Meher.

Brij has been a silent supporter and my mother provided me with her inexhaustible strength and love. Without my wonderful family, I wouldn't have been able to reach where I am today.

A career of fearless commitment

My formative years groomed me to take on the challenges of the Indian Police Service. I became the first and highest ranking woman to qualify as an officer, and never looked back.

Justice has always been all-important to me. I loved the discipline that came with the job and the power. I had the resources to deliver justice.

When I was the Inspector General – Prisons of Tihar Jail from 1993 to 1995 with over 10,000 inmates, I attempted to humanise imprisonment.

I based the prison management model on internal cohesion, external coordination and participation.

And despite lack of government budgets, prisoners had access to education, better healthcare, counselling services, drug abuse treatment, festival celebrations, libraries, higher education, vocational training and job work, child care, legal aid, legal education, clean food, better water and feedback systems.

Politics should empower people.

Political life has its own, very large space. Mahatma Gandhi was involved in political life and he helped free India, but he was not in "narrow" politics. He belonged to the larger political plateau like Subhas Chandra Bose, an important name in the Indian freedom struggle. I am part of the latter.

Politics is a mockery in India today. It is about criticising people for the sake of criticising (and) I can't live with that.
I prefer to use power that empowers others.

The more you work towards empowering others, the more power you get in return. Our ministers should work together. Coordination is truly lacking. This should be rectified.

I retired last year.

I took early retirement from IPS in December, from the service I have loved the most. But tragically the persons in power didn't want the best out of me.

I was an open book. They felt insecure and threatened by my reforms and the changes that would have come in the Police Service and empowerment of the rank-and-file. And of the changes among people at large through participative policing.

The change would have been so visible that it would have raised the demands for similar changes from non-performers. Like free registration of crimes, truthful investigation, more use of surveillance cameras for traffic violators ... all this would have got many VIPs and their ilk in the net.

Though they tried to encage me, I decided to break free.

I work with NGOs.

I set up Navjyoti in 1986 to work in the field of drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation and the India Vision Foundation to work in the field of prison reforms, crime prevention, education and rural development.

Navjyoti has treated over 12,000 drug addicts to date. It is on special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

It received the United Nations Serge Sotiroff Memorial award in 1999.

India Vision Foundation has a "Crime Home Children" project where children of prisoners are educated, who are otherwise beggars, rag pickers and gamblers. My latest project is www.saferindia.com.

It is an e-complaint service. Anyone who has problems recording complaints with the police can approach us.

Once we receive complaints, the matter is sent to the concerned police headquarters with a carbon copy (cc) to the complainant.

We follow up with the complainant in case he needs further help. If he does, we link with an NGO or individuals enrolled as volunteers, mostly reporters. We also do follow-ups telephonically to assess if they are on track.

Recognition and awards

I cannot ask for more recognition. The amount of love, respect and devotion I've received is unbelievable for a person in the police service.

My own life has been one of devotion to the service. I have received many awards – from the President's Gallantry Award in 1979 to the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994, Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice in 2005 and the Public Service Excellence Award last year.

Each award I have received is close to my heart. Each a treasure of respect and honour. The latest award I received is the Annemarie-Madison prize for human rights.

Me and my books

I have a biography titled I Dare by Parmesh Dangwal. The book has been translated into many regional Indian languages.

My fortnightly column written for a daily was published in What Went Wrong? It is a compilation of 37 real-life stories.

I authored It's Always Possible to document the transformation of one of the largest prisons (the Tihar jail in Delhi) in the world. It is accompanied by a CD ROM with the same title produced by India Vision Foundation.