Kiran Bedi's voluntary exit from the police force affirms what many of us knew all along - that career women run up against a glass ceiling. Demotivated by the fact that she was overlooked for the post of police commissioner of Delhi four months ago, she decided to call it a day. Bedi had good reasons to believe that she lost out only because she was a woman. It is not just that she did not have a network of "booze friends" to swing things her way; her exceptional competence worked to her disadvantage. Most government organisations are led by men who will not rock the boat with new ideas and methods.
Bedi, India's first woman IPS officer, was not an anonymous conformist. Initially called 'Crane Bedi' for daring to tow away Indira Gandhi's car, she is today best known for converting Delhi's Tihar Jail into a near-model prison, second perhaps only to the Sanganer open jail in Jaipur. As inspector general, prisons, Bedi humanised Tihar by starting yoga, meditation and vocational training courses for inmates and their kin. She is perhaps among the few police officers to recognise that jails should be centres of rehabilitation rather than punishment. For her efforts, she won the Magsaysay award.
But for the police, such achievements do not matter. Bedi was sidelined for not being in 'active policing' for 20 years. If assignments that involve research, training and engagement with human rights are not considered integral to the police force, it explains a lot of the inefficiency and callousness within the police. Policing is seen as a 'hard' task of maintaining law and order by wielding sticks and guns. This is not just a narrow, antiquated approach, but a male-centred one as well. If more women like Bedi are encouraged to take centre stage, the basic thrust of the police can change.
Bedi joined the civil services in 1972, a time when fewer middle-class women opted for a career. With her toughness and charisma she emerged as a role model for many women, particularly in male-dominated north India. Thirty-five years later, women have made a mark as company executives, bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors and businesspersons. However, these continue to be male domains. If women are kept out through overt or subtle methods, it is because, like Bedi, they can rupture the status quo by introducing new dimensions to leadership.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Gender_Cop-out/arti...