Kiran Bedi Biography for UPSC

Kiran Bedi is the first woman to join the Indian Police Service and one of the highest-ranked female officers in India. A social activist and former tennis player, she chose the road not taken and later proved the road worth travelling. Her career in police service and subsequent reforms brought in the prison sector have inspired and galvanised the interests of women to take up the challenging profession.

She was also the first Indian woman to head the United Nations Police. Breaking the glass ceiling, she progressed her vision and journey, serving the nation. Her eventful career landed her in various roles, including administrator, narcotics officer, and antiterrorist specialist.

Biographies of prominent personalities are important for UPSC Civil Services Exam preparation. These notes will also be useful for competitive exams like Bank PO, SSC, state civil services exams, and so on.

In this article, you can read about the life and contributions of the first lady officer of the Indian Police Service, Kiran Bedi.

Kiran Bedi-Download PDF Here

Early Life of Kiran Bedi

• Born on 9th June 1949 into a business family based in Punjab, Kiran Peshawaria was the daughter of Prakash Lal Peshwaria and Prem Latha. She had three sisters, namely Anu, Reeta, and Shashi. She did not have an orthodox upbringing.
• Kiran Bedi started her formal education at the Sacred Heart Convent high school in Amritsar in 1954. She was a part of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in her initial years of schooling. She then shifted her education to Cambridge College, which offered science education, and started with her preparations for matriculation exams.
• Kiran started playing Tennis at the age of nine. She participated in the National junior lawn tennis championship in 1964. Her forte and fervour in the game earned her the title of ‘National Champion. But, a lack of administrative support from authorities dimmed her entry into Wimbledon junior championship. Between 1965 and 1978, she won several Championships for India, including Asian Lawn Tennis Championship and a Gold medal for National Sports Festival for Women.
• She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the Government College of Women in Amritsar in 1968. She also bagged the NCC Cadet Officer Award. She completed her Master’s degree in Political Science from the Panjab University in Chandigarh. She worked as a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar from 1970 to 1972. In 1972, she married Brij Bedi, a tennis player in Amritsar.

Indian Police Service

• Her inspiration to build a career in public service came along with her interactions with senior civil servants in the Service Club in Amritsar. On July 16, 1972, she created history and became the first woman to join the Indian Police Service. After attending a foundation course for initial six months, she underwent nine months of training in Rajasthan and subsequent training with Punjab Police in 1974. Then, she was allocated to the Union Territory cadre, comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, and Mizoram.

Initial years

• Kiran Bedi was initially posted in the Chanakyapuri subdivision of New Delhi in 1965. In the Republic Day Parade of 1975, she became the first woman officer in India to lead an all-male contingent of Delhi. In 1978, a unit headed by Bedi succeeded in dispersing the demonstrators of Akali Sikhs and Nirankari in Chanakyapuri. Her prompt action to disperse the protestors and terminate the violence earned her the President of India’s Police Medal for Gallantry in 1979.
• In 1979, she was posted in West Delhi. She tried to include civilian participation to maintain law and order in light of criminal activities at an alarming rate and lack of officers. She introduced anonymous reporting of crimes and prohibited illegal manufacturing and sale of liquor to reduce the number of crimes in the area.
• She also introduced the beatbox system to address the grievances of the particular area and assigned beat constables to each locality. There was a significant reduction in the number of crimes within 3 months. Crimes against women, such as eve-teasing and physical harassment, dropped down. It earned her huge respect from local women, who themselves served as volunteers to fight crimes in the area.
• Her service as Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) was also effective. During that period, she took action against improperly parked vehicles and removed them using cranes. She was nicknamed “Crane Bedi” for the same. Spot fines were fixed instead of traffic tickets. She also coordinated with the Delhi Development Authority and Municipal Corporation of Delhi to reduce the traffic problems in the city.
• She took strong action against careless drivers who did not adhere to motor rules and standards. She coordinated with sponsors of the Asian Games with a Traffic Management Plan. She raised funds for traffic guidance materials and brought vehicles, including four-wheelers, for the traffic department. For her excellent initiatives and coordination in the traffic department, she was awarded the Asian Jyoti award. Her impartiality in the implementation of traffic rules earned her displeasure of rich and powerful sections and was transferred to Goa under political influence.

Goa

• She started her term in Goa in March 1983. The construction of the Zuari bridge was completed and the state government wanted Indira Gandhi to inaugurate the bridge. People were in distress, owing to transportation barriers as they had to use ferries to transfer their vehicles. Once the issue came to the notice of Kiran Bedi, she rushed to the bridge, removed the blockades, and facilitated the movement across the bridge. Her spontaneous act garnered displeasure from politicians.
• In the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet, which took place in November 1983, she employed NCC Cadets for traffic regulation, including VIP routes. After the meeting, she returned to Delhi owing to the serious medical condition of her daughter. She left without getting an official sanction for the same. Once she returned to office after six months, she was not assigned any responsibilities. Later, under the recommendation of Home Secretary T.N Chathurvedi, she was appointed the Deputy Commandant of the Railway Protection Force (RPF). After six months, she started serving as a mediator in the Directorate General of Industrial Contingency (DGIC).In October 1985, she left DGIC.

Anti-Drug Campaign and Lawyers Strike

• In 1986, Bedi was appointed the Deputy Police Commissioner in North Delhi, where drug usage was rampant. Bedi took the initiative to set up a Drug detox centre on police premises since there was only one treatment centre for drug addicts in Delhi. The detox centre received community donations in the form of blankets, furniture, medicines, and voluntary service from doctors and yoga teachers in de-addiction. Each centre, with an accommodative capacity of 30, included 100 people. The initiative came to the notice of many. By the time she left the office, 15 officers established detox centres under the name ‘Navjyoti Police Foundation for Correction, De-addiction, and Rehabilitation’.Bedi served as the General Secretary of this foundation.
• Finally, the Wadhwa Commission, appointed by the Delhi High Court, started investigating the case. However, the commission expressed concern over the negligence of deployed police forces in Delhi, who did not try to control the mobs when they were approaching Tis Hazari Court complex. Even before the final submission of the report, the Union Government transferred Bedi to the Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB).
• The final report submitted by the commission accused Bedi of ordering lathicharge on lawyers and that she was secretly involved in the mob attack against lawyers.

Mizoram

• She joined the Mizoram government as the Deputy Inspector General on April 27, 1990. The major crime in Mizoram was drug smuggling across Burmese borders. Most of the youth were addicted to drugs and crimes were alcohol-induced.Kiran Bedi tried to involve Church and Christian prayers to reduce alcohol consumption in the state. Criminals were brought to the police station and mandated to participate in prayers and receive treatment for their addiction. Meanwhile, she received her doctorate from IIT, Delhi on “Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence”.

Prison Reforms

• In May 1993, she was appointed the Inspector General to Delhi prisons. The post was vacant for the past 9 months as the place was notorious, and none of the officers wished to be placed there. Apart from that, the prison was overcrowded with inmates accused of non-bailable offences and awaiting trials for years. The budget allocated to prison did hardly cover the basic expenditures.
• She initiated reforms to transform it into a model prison. Hardcore criminals were secluded by the allocation of separate rooms. They were involved in illicit activities within the premises, like recruiting gang members, collecting money, and exchange of illegal goods. Legal cells were set up to speed up undertrials. Bedi banned smoking inside the prison, which was met with serious resistance from the inmates and staff.
• In order to manage the low impulse control and anti-social behaviour of prison inmates, she introduced Yoga and meditation classes. She also organised physical activities, festivals, and prayer sessions to bring about behavioural change in them. De-addiction centres were established, and staff involved in the illegal supply of drugs and other goods were suspended or imprisoned. She opened a bank inside the prison. Small manufacturing units were also set up, where prisoners engaged in carpentry and weaving. Profits from these units were transferred to the Prisoners Welfare Fund.
• Bedi went around the prison, monitoring the staff and prisoners and directly communicating with prisoners about their problems, food quality, and management. She set up a panchayat system within the prison, where inmates selected based on their character, age and education met with the senior officials to discuss problems and sort out them. She set up petition boxes, where inmates could write to Bedi on any issue, without the interference of prison staff who destroyed the complaints received through suggestion boxes. Regular updates were given to prisoners on the status of their complaints.
• One of the important aspects of Kiran Bedi’s Prison reforms was that she included the participation of schools, NGOs, civilians, and other inmates. Her reconditioning garnered favourable results. The rate of crimes, illegal activities, and disturbances inside the jail got minimised. Hardened criminals, secluded in separate barracks, started behaving properly. She also arranged courses on meditation and education for the prisoners.
• In 1994 May, Bedi organised a health day where doctors and paramedics visited the inmates of Tihar Jail. A cardiologist, associated with the AIDS Control Programme acknowledged that the inmates were engaged in homosexual activities. He recommended the distribution of preventive measures to avoid the chances of AIDS.
• Kiran Bedi opposed this, stating that there were no HIV-positive patients among prisoners and distribution of safety measures would increase homosexual activity. ased Based on the writ petition filed in Delhi High Court by an AIDS activist movement, the court ordered the distribution of preventive measures in Tihar jail. However, Bedi filed a counter affidavit against this.
• Bedi was appreciated worldwide for her constructive efforts in prison reforms.

Further Engagements

• In 1994, Bedi received the Ramon Magsaysay award for her contributions to crime control, rehabilitation of drug addicts, and prison reforms. She also received the Nehru Fellowship in the same year. Former US President Bill Clinton invited her to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. The Delhi government stopped her from accepting the invitation. She approached the media when she again received the invitation in 1995. Finally, she attended the breakfast with government approval due to pressure from the public and media. This gained her several disparagers in the Delhi government.
• Later she was invited to participate in the Copenhagen Social Summit by the United Nations to work on the social integration of prisoners. Again, she declined the consent from Delhi Government.
• During this period, there were a number of allegations against her on various issues. She was accused of her foreign trips, compromising the security of prison by letting in American officials and media people without the consent of the Delhi government. Serious allegations were also made against her for giving consent to representatives of the National Human Rights Commission to meet the convicts in Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) from Kashmir

Police Academy

• After being transferred from Tihar jail, Bedi was appointed the head of the Police training academy as the Additional Commissioner of Policy and Planning. She also served as the Joint Commissioner of Police and Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) of Delhi police. She also served as the Inspector general of police in Chandigarh.

United Nations

Kiran Bedi was the first woman to associate with the United Nations as civil police advisor. She was a part of UN Peacekeeping operations.

Retirement

After working with the UN, she was appointed the Director General of Home Guards and the Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development. In November 2007, she resigned from the police service.

Social Activism

• Navjyoti India Foundation: In 2007, she revived Navjyoti Police Foundation and renamed it Navjyoti India Foundation. Residential treatment was given to over 2000 drug and alcohol addicts. To reduce juvenile delinquency, she initiated crime prevention programmes for children living in slums and streets. For the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of society, she established schools, vocational training centres, and healthcare facilities. In 2010, Navjyoti Community College was established.
• India Vision Foundation: Started in 1994 by Kiran Bedi, India Vision foundation works in the fields of police reforms, women empowerment, prison reforms, and community and rural development. In the sphere of police reforms, she advocated the requirement of providing better training. She opined that frequent transfers would affect the productivity and efficiency of officers, which in turn would result in poor cadre management. She proposed the creation of a new level of police administration that would protect officers from the influence of politicians and bureaucrats.
• She advocated the empowerment of women, especially in the field of education and ownership of property. She focused on rural women as they were behind in the pace of growth and development.
• Bedi also took up the roles of a social commentator and trainer, speaking on multiple issues of social relevance, like education, domestic violence, etc. She hosted a real-life tv show named Aap ki Kachehri that discussed real-life incidents and resolved them. She launched a website to receive complaints that were not accepted by the police.

Anti-Corruption movement

• Invited by Arvind Kejriwal, Bedi became a part of the Anti-Corruption movement, which formed a group named India Against Corruption, along with Anna Hazare. This paved the way for the Indian Anti-Corruption movement in 2011
• She sided with Anna Hazare towards the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill. However, Bedi and members of the IOC were arrested before the hunger strike. They were released on the same day, and after 12 days of protest, the Government passed a resolution for passing the Lokpal Bill. Bedi and other members were accused of mocking the parliamentarians during the protests.
• During the anti-corruption movement, she also faced allegations of discrepancies in her past travel expenses. An FIR was filed against her for illegally collecting funds through NGO and the Indian Vision foundation. However, a further investigation acquitted her of the charges.

Political Career

• Following the split from India Against Corruption, she supported the Bharatiya Janata Party. Along with the support of Narendra Modi, she was made the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate in New Delhi. She contested in the 2015 Delhi Assembly Elections against Arvind Kejriwal, candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party. Following the defeat in the elections, she was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.

Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry

• Bedi was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry on 29 May 2016. As the Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry, she opened the official Government residence, Raj Niwas, to the public. Common people were given access to Raj Nivas, where she formed an open house for people to meet the Lieutenant Governor in person and convey their problems. Varied issues, including cleanliness, sanitation, cleaning beaches, garbage issues, and desilting water channels, were all resolved.
• Bedi organised cycle rallies where she met people, and rewarded them for good deeds. She implemented “ Mission Water Rich Pondicherry” and carried out activities like de-silt of water channels and drains. She implemented the scheme with community participation in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility.
• She started “Mission Green Puducherry” in 2019 by planting saplings in kanagan lake in Puducherry. She also campaigned for the rights of deserving students to secure seats in Medical Colleges. Her contributions to the overall development of the Union Territory were massive and all-inclusive, particularly in garnering community support and financial understanding.
• On 16 February 2021, she resigned from the post of Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.

Important Books

• I Dare
• It’s Always Possible: One Woman’s Transformation of Tihar Prison
• What Went Wrong and Why
• Dare to Do ! for the New Generation
• As I See
• What Went Wrong… And Continues?
• Broom & Groom
• Fearless Governance
• Creating Leadership: IIustrations from My Top Cop Years
• Shadow in Cages
• Indian Police… As I see
• Government @ Net: New Governance Opportunities for India
• Be the Change ‘Fighting Corruption’: The Crusade Against Corr.
• Jeet Lo Har Shikhar

Frequently Asked Questions about Kiran Bedi

Who was the first female IPS officer in India?

Kiran Bedi is the first woman to join the Indian Police Service on 16 July 1972. Her career marks multiple roles as an administrator, tennis player, police officer, social activist, and politician. She brought significant reforms during her service in the prison sector, narcotics department and

Puducherry(Lieutenant Governor).

What are the remarkable achievements of Kiran Bedi?

Kiran Bedi was inducted into Indian Police Service as the first woman officer from India in 1972. Her tenure as the Inspector General of Prisons brought a remarkable change to the inmates and the entire system through effective policies and stringent measures. She made an effort to rehabilitate drug addicts and prompt women empowerment. Her contributions as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry were lauded by many.

What are the awards received by Kiran Bedi?

She received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, also known as the Nobel Peace Prize of Asia, in 1994 for her commitment to police service, zestful administrative efficiency, and innovative policies in crime control, drug rehabilitation, and prison reforms.

How was Kiran Bedi associated with the United Nations?

Kiran Bedi was the first Indian to be appointed as a civilian police officer by the United Nations in 2003.

Which were the important non-governmental organisations found by Kiran Bedi?

Kiran Bedi was instrumental in establishing the Navjyoti foundation in 1988 and India Vision Foundation in 1994. Both organisations worked on providing primary education, women empowerment through literacy programs and vocational training, and rehabilitation of drug users and prisoners.

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