Meet Kiran Bedi, India’s national tennis champion who became the first Indian woman IPS officer

Kiran Bedi is a regular household name as she is the first woman to join the officer ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS). She was born on 9 June 1949 in Amritsar, Punjab and did her schooling at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar. She then obtained her bachelor’s degree in English from the Government College for Women, Amritsar, and a master’s degree in political science from Punjab University in Chandigarh.

Kiran Bedi, who joined the Indian Police Service in 1972, also did her LLB in 1988 from Delhi University.

Kiran Bedi’s tennis love

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Kiran Bedi has been a professional tennis player and started playing the game at the age of 9. He won the national junior championship in 1966 and the senior national title in 1974. In 1972, he also won the National Junior Lawn Tennis Championship.

He played competitive tennis from the age of 13 until the age of 30.

Tennis was a family sport for Kiran Bedi as her father was a tennis player himself and encouraged all four of his daughters to play competitive tennis.

She also believes that if tennis was not there, she would not have been able to join the police service.

Kiran Bedi met her husband on the tennis court

Kiran Bedi met her husband Brij Bedi on the tennis court. He was a university champion and it was ‘love through tennis’ as she says.

He was a textile engineer who had his own business and was a well known social worker in Amritsar.

The two have a daughter – Saina Bharucha – who lives in Pune.

Kiran Bedi trained in Mount Abu

Coming from an NCC background, Kiran Bedi underwent training at the National Police Academy in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. She was the only woman in the batch of 80 to undergo her police training.

During training, she used to beat boys in marathons, tennis matches and other training games, and was later allotted the UT AGMUT cadre.

Kiran Bedi’s first posting was in Delhi

After completing her training, Kiran Bedi was given her first posting as ACP in Chanakyapuri, Delhi in 1978-79. Notably, Chanakyapuri is the most posh locality of Delhi and houses all the important offices including Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhavan.

She also became the first woman to lead an all-male contingent in the Republic Day parade. Seeing a woman leading the parade, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi encouraged her and reportedly invited her for breakfast.

He was also awarded the President’s Gallantry Medal in 1979.

Kiran Bedi as DCP West launches Beatbox System

As DCP West, Kiran Bedi introduced the system of Beat Box in Delhi – the concept of neighborhood policing. The concept of beat policing is that these boxes were manned by a local police constable as a beat officer, for about three hours every day, and the beat officer reported to the station house officer every day. Due to this the police help reached the door.

This system brought the policemen into the civilian sphere and was helpful in settling all kinds of disputes very easily.

In the national capital, he has held various posts – DCP Traffic, DCP North, IG Jail Tihar and Special Secretary Delhi-LG. Bedi has also served in Goa, Mizoram and was also the first woman to be appointed UN Civilian Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Before taking voluntary retirement from service in 2007, Kiran Bedi was posted as Director General of Police, Bureau of Police Research and Development. The BPRD was established in 1970 by the Government of India to modernize the police forces.

She was one of the pioneers of the 2011 anti-corruption movement along with activists Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, who later formed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and became the Chief Minister of Delhi.

Political journey of Kiran Bedi

The country’s first woman IPS officer then tried her luck in politics and led the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections.

However, he suffered his worst defeat in his first political innings and Kejriwal-led AAP won 67 of the 70 assembly seats.

Subsequently, in 2016, Kiran Bedi took over as the 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry and will serve till 2021.

Kiran Bedi has also published several books including ‘Fearless Governance’, which is based on the ground reality of her nearly five years of service as Puducherry LG and her vast experience of 40 years in the Indian Police Service.