Kiran Bedi
Kiran Bedi was born on June 9, 1949 in Amritsar, Punjab. A national-level tennis champion while in college, she did her BA (Honours) in English and MA in Political Science, after which she worked as a college lecturer for two years. In 1972, she cleared the Civil Services exam and joined the Indian Police Service. After her police training, she was posted as the Sub-Divisional Police Officer at the Chanakyapuri Police Station in New Delhi. In 1975, she became the first woman to lead the all-male contingent of the Delhi Police at the Republic Day Parade.
On one occasion in 1978, Kiran's platoon was deployed to curb a protest demonstration at India Gate. Armed with only a cane, she charged the protestors. One of them ran towards her with a naked sword. Heedless of her personal safety, she charged him and others with the crane and eventually chased him away, preventing a riot. For this incident, she was awarded the President's Police Medal for Gallantry the following year.
Kiran proved her mettle in 1981 when, posted as DCP (Traffic) in Delhi when the city was in total disarray with construction works in full swing in preparation for the forthcoming Asian Games, she regularised the traffic, pulled up offenders, and got wrongly parked cars --- including, on one memorable occasion, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's car --- immediately towed away by cranes. This gutsy move, which showed Delhi residents that no one was above the law, earned her the nickname 'Crane Bedi'.
Even while working, Kiran continued her education and went on to do her LLB from Delhi University and Ph.D. from IIt, Delhi. In 1987, she founded an NGO named Navjyoti India Foundation, aimed at de-addiction and rehabilitation of drug addicts. In 1993, posted as inspector General, Delhi Prisons, Kiran started a reform programme at Tihar Jail that won her worldwide acclaim and earned her the Ramon Magsaysay Award the following year.
In 2003, she became first Indian and first woman to be appointed as head of United Nations Police and Police Advisor in UN Department of Peace Operations. She resigned in 2007, to focus on social activism and writing.
