Kerala’s First Lady IPS Officer | R. Sreelekha | TEDxManipalUniversityJaipur

good morning everybody I just came to mana pal in the beautiful University Manipal University of Jaipur I to visit and see my friend dr. Matt Pantani and she said that there was a great event going on here and I should also say something and I immediately said yes because TED Talks are so famous worldwide and I had also participated in one of the TED Talks in Kerala long time back and I thought this team is very very interesting that is beyond imbroglio and also embracing cows being the sub team and being somebody who has been through a lot of imbroglio sin life in my career so far and also somebody who loves to embrace chaos I thought I will just say a few things to you to kick off the start the discussion of today as Kunal introduced I am I am an IPS officer of 1987 batch and I'm the first lady IPS officer to come from Kerala and also to go to Kerala so Kerala is a state which is on the southernmost tip of India and it's so far off from the from the powers-that-be or from the sound and fury sometimes it appears as if it is outside India altogether but still it is a it's a beautiful country right now it is called God's own country and so many things are happening there but there it is a matriarchal society in Kerala still women are not considered welcomed they are not accepted in major important places in Kerala so I came as a sort of surprise for the people in Kerala when I became the first lady IPS officer in a very masculine feel like police a lady wearing uniform khaki and then coming as as heading the one of the heads of the organisation it shocked the people so that so much so that the DGP at that time at a conference announced my visit as a pollution he told the officers present there that do you know that a woman is coming to pollute our department and everybody laughed I didn't know about it then because I was undergoing training at that time in the National Police Academy but the first thing I heard when I landed in Kerala was this that the you know the DGP said that you have come to pollute the department so this is the attitude of even the head of the department during that time and that was a that was a problem that I had to meet head-on similar things like that have happened throughout because they didn't know what to do with a lady officer so they were going to give me a lot of concessions and facilities said that you don't have to work in the night you don't have to do night duty you don't have to do traffic duty don't stand on guard at a police station all these sort of things you know they thought it was a concession given to me and I refused to each of them I said I did double of all that so that I had to I had to prove to my seniors and also to the society that lady can do all this and also may be in a much better way than a male can do so I did all that they did it overtime to duties and three duties just to prove a point and then I got married of course my husband was the doctor he was working in a Medical College at a particular place and suddenly from a subdivision where I was working as a SP assistant superinten for to a very insignificant post in the place of my husband and then I resisted I said that what is this I as an officer in this particular rank I have to do a subdivision this is when the experiences comes you know you you have to interact with a lot of people in the society and also crying maintenance of law and order all these things will have to be done at this particular young stage so you have they have shifted me to a very insignificant post called Crime Records Bureau SPS are generally not posted in Crime Records Bureau but I became the first officer first IPS officer to be posted in Crime Records Bureau I went and asked the DGP what is what is the mistake that I did so that I got transfer it was something like a punishment transfer and he said that because he got married we thought that it will be convenient for you to now be a family then have a child also if you want this upset me so much that I asked him sir are you the person to decide when I should have a child or not but then you know in police department the ground stone is discipline so if somebody talks arrogantly to a senior officer it is considered as in disciplined so my annual confidential report got spoiled I was written as an arrogant officer but that is just the first of the adverse remarks in my annual confidential reports anyway I worked in District Crime Records Bureau and it is something that no other person worked there working there did like I conducted that I found out that the maximum number of cases registered are on narcotic substances so I conducted a statewide awareness program I made a movie of the ill effects of narcotic substances what are the bad things of narcotics are that they can have what are the addictive things and about other things that students can be aware of and then this was shown in all the schools and colleges and we conducted programs thereby reducing the number of cases registered by 40% in the next year and that for that for that I got the first good service entry from the government and also working in a bad post like the Crime Records Bureau also you could do something you will have to find ways to do whatever you want and this is again out of a problem out of an imbroglio how I could very go out and get something for the society also the society also benefited I am sure the school students and the college students also got aware of this menace and the problem and they could kick the habit and also the crime numbers registered got reduced now it is a statewide process now everybody is doing that everywhere the system that I continued another problem when I got posted in a super intestine the police in a district I'm managing the district has a super enough police one particular officer refused to come before me whenever I summoned him he will be either only he'll be on special permission he'll be sick his wife will be sick his child will be sick he'll never come in front of me but he'll talk to me over the phone so that got me very puzzled I I was keeping on wondering what at that particular time there is no you know there is there are no mobile phones we used to talk to each other over the land phone mobile phones came much later so one day I came to know also that this fellow God gave an application for transfer and he went away he's planning to go away from my district and so I inquired and his friend in the same rank he was a circle inspector of police and the inspector of police was his friend he when he came I asked him what is what is this guy's problem why he said not coming appearing in front of me and then he said that madam he keeps on telling everybody that he will salute any idiot but not a woman but never a woman so I thought it says it's a male chauvinism at its height you know when a circle inspector refuses to go beyond before a senior officer head of the district police because he's hesitant to salute a woman officer although he can salute any other idiot of a man that that is the height of male chauvinism so I said okay let him note let him go anyway I have got several more years in service he may also be having several years in service let us see what happens later about five or six years later this guy had to work with me and at that time he was in a post wear uniform was not needed so he did not ask for a transfer he came to see me and for the first time I saw his face and that that by that time the mobile phones have also come in into force in the police department we were using that technology and this guy came in mufti in civil dress and when you come in mufti before a police officer you do this know you don't have to salute only when you wear a police uniform and a cap you have to salute so I looked at him and said go go and wear your uniform and come it is first time when you are coming to see a senior officer you will have to be in your uniform so you are disobeying that order go wear your uniform and come and see me I don't want to come and I don't want to see you now so he got a little red-faced event and then after some time he came back wearing his uniform and he saluted so I looked at him and said that this is not a proper salute what is the salute where did you get your training you salute properly then he saluted again then I said no that is also not correct your fingers are shivering your fingers are not supposed to shiver you stand firm and salute again I made him salute ten times in the tense then time he saluted he was almost on his face eyes were brimming with tears and all that so I made him sit down and I asked him do you know why I did this to you and he said of course yes ma'am I know I am sorry so these things you know how this things work so that it will all come to a full circle then when something starts from somewhere this will go through a certain path and then come straight to you so this is called uh I don't know whether it is called chaos theory because chaos theory is something in mathematics where in a in a lot of fluctuations and improbabilities the in a place where a lot of problems are there how certain things come out of nowhere or it seemed to come out from nowhere but I call it natural justice there is something called natural justice which works in all our lives in the human life in all around us you can see it as you go ahead in your life you are all very young people students so but you as you advance in life you will know that there is nothing called previous life you don't know about it or you don't know anything about your path you are coming life people will say that whatever I experienced now though I did not do anything wrong maybe because of my past life since that I am experiencing this it's all rubbish there's nothing like that whatever you do in this life it will come back to you if it is a good thing that you have done it is it will come as a reward to you if it is a bad thing you have done it will come as a punishment to you in this life itself that is called that is what I would like to call a natural justice working so these sort of problems were abundant for me in the first ten years this imbroglio were abundant for somebody who walks straight into earth then full of confused people you know they're they don't know what to do with you so I always respect all the lady IPS officers we always respect madam Kiran Bedi she was the first in India to Don the uniform as a lady officer end and she she showed the fish she paved the path for us so when she walked probably a lot of stones and lots of stones were there on the path and that dalgo went into her feet so that made it easier for the others to all the other ladies to follow her path there is the path is clean there is no more thorn or stones on the path hurdles are not there and it is an amazing service the Holy Service is an amazing service challenges will be there but embrace the challenges because that is what will make you a better person when you when you are faced with a challenge only your true knowledge will be your true mettle will be shown your true character will be shown for an example I think Kunal was talking about gems when he in the introductory talk he was saying that there's so many gems in among us you're all gems all of us are gems only problem is that a jump it requires a lot of polishing rubbing so that it will shine forth us of of value you know a precious nature of gems will come forth only when there's a lot of robbing and when there's a lot of polishing which is done and all the problems in your life that you encounter all the issues in your life all the ado situations in your life if you consider it as a sort of a robbing and a polishing process then you will realize that these are all steps that will make you a better person the inner jump will come forth shine forth and it will be a very good shining light for everybody else to follow the adverse conditions it can be anything you know it can be relationships it can be finances it could be social conditions it could be problems in your course your education your carrier whatever but all these comes to you with a particular purpose of making you a better person so this topic is extremely relevant today this imbroglio is in your life there is there are something beyond that which is much much much better and it you will realize it only when you get out of that the challenges are always placed before you to test your capacity to tide over those challenges to get over those challenges and a life which is full of happiness life if you may be thinking that the life of a prince of Saudi Arabia how wonderful it will be or a princess of your queen of some other monarch monarch maybe Britain British princess how wonderful it will be it won't be wonderful because that particular person who is having everything a person who is born with a golden spoon in his mouth and will get everything at the instant he wishes for everything is there in front of a person what sort of a dull life that will be your life will become valuable it will become good only when you strive for your wishes you when you when you want your wishes to come through come come true and you work towards it then that pleasure is it's different it's suppose you want something you desire for something in your life and then you are working towards that is there and once it comes to fruition then you will know how wonderful your life is how pleasurable your work is how much of a good person you are and if something just comes before you like God just puts it on your lap whatever you wish for then you will start even not believing in God so you will have to have these problems in your life these challenges in your life to understand what a good person you are what a what a better person you are going to become in the process towards it wish you all the best wish this talk to be a great success I'm in a little hurry sorry if you have any questions to ask me you can you can ask also I don't know where the questions are permitted in TED talks but just with this last word that life is full of challenges it's also full of joy and merriment and successes life is also in a cone Ross and opposites like like our universe everything is having a corner Oz it is having a gravitational pull it is having what it is it is having you know a North Pole and South Pole attractions repulsions all those all those things are there in life but it is how we face them our attitude towards those problems that determine what sort of we become in the future and be your attitude be always let your attitude be always positive and all the best to you thank you so much [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 701,634

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Social Science, Achievement, Feminism, Struggle, Women, Women's Rights

Id: OswaMyBZEyA

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 01 2019