KIRAN BEDI
• ASIA NOBEL PRIZE WINNER
• NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE
• One of the world’s greatest change agents of modern times
• Consistently one of the top ten of India’s most admired
• India’s first woman police officer
• Social, police and prison reformer
• Heads two non-profit organizations benefiting 11,000 daily
KIRAN BEDI, India’s first woman police officer and most controversial public figure, is considered by many to be one of the great change agents of modern times. A modern-day Gandhi reaching iconic status in India, BEDI has been awarded both the Asia Nobel Pirize, and has been collectively nomintaed in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize, for her revolutionary and historical reforms within the Indian police, prisons and through her community work reaching out to the illiterate masses. BEDI has been voted as India’s most admired woman and fifth amongst all Indians.
Taught by her unconventional parents to compete and “to think equally,” BEDI excelled both at school and at tennis – the family passion. She sailed through college and a masters degree and, in 1972, at the age of twenty-two, won the women’s lawn tennis championship of Asia. It was here on the courts where BEDI’s parents taught her “to stand in the sun, bear the heat, and work”. That same year she entered the police academy and, in 1974, became the first woman to enter the elite Indian Police Service. Initially BEDI was
dissuaded, but was accepted only after she threatened to appeal to the Supreme Court. Assigned to the capital city, BEDI rose rapidly in the ranks, winning national acclaim-and a presidential award-in 1978 by single-handedly standing down a violent riot of hundreds of sword-wielding protestors, and only with her police baton, after all her colleagues had run away.
As deputy commissioner of police in Delhi’s West and North Districts, BEDI posted constables in blue-and-white “beat boxes” where citizens could consult them daily. She redirected former bootleggers to honest livelihoods by arranging friendly loans and assistance. Women’s peace committees, set up at her initiative, promoted neighborhood harmony. As community participation rose, crimes fell. Observing the link between drug addiction and chronic criminality, BEDI set up community-supported detoxification clinics, a model she later developed for wider application as deputy director of the Narcotics Control Bureau.
As New Delhi’s traffic chief, her meticulous planning and ruthlessly impartial enforcement of the rules kept the capital’s motley caravanserai of vehicles moving at the 1982 Asian Games- although she admits she made some enemies in the process. Especially when BEDI controverisally towed away the illegally parked car of then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. BEDI has always stood firmly by her belief that one rule is for all – for commoners and VIP’s, and she promptly held a Nationwide Press conference telling all. It was this action early in her career that established BEDI firmly as a “publicity-seeking, loose-canon”, and consequently BEDI was transferred frequently from one undesirable posting to another for her entire career. BEDI is impatient and inclined to buck the system. “It is tough to go against the wave,” she says, “but at least you reach where nobody else can.”
The most undesirable posting of all was bestowed upon BEDI In 1993 when she became Inspector General of prisons (Delhi) and took charge of Tihar, India’s largest and most notoriously brutal prison complex. In this overcrowded purgatory dwelled more than 9,000 prisoners, 90 percent of whom were unconvicted and merely awaiting trial. BEDI rapidly transformed Tihar. Today its inmates follow a positive regimen of work, study, and play. Illiterate prisoners learn to read and write. Others earn higher degrees from cooperating colleges. In prison workshops, prisoners keep their skills tuned and earn wages to save in Tihar’s new bank. Through their panchayats (elected councils), inmates share responsibility for community discipline and for organizing games and entertainment. In yoga classes they learn meditation techniques to still anger and improve concentration. Complaints placed in the mobile petition box go directly to the top and are taken seriously. Tihar is a different
world today. In it BEDI’s charges are being imbued with positive attitudes and practical skills for life beyond the walls. For her revolutionary work inside Tihar, BEDI was awarded Asia’s Nobel Peace Prize (The Ramon Magsaysay Award), and was honoured at the White House at the National Prayer Breakfast, hosted by then US President Clinton. BEDI’s innovative prison programs have been subsequently adopted by prisons in India and around the world today. Interestingly, BEDI was again transferred out of Tihar Jail prematurely and under a slew of allegations.
Undeterred and using the USD50,000 she was awarded with the Asia Nobel Prize, Bedi founded two NGOs (non-government organisations) inside Delhi’s crime and poverty stricken slums and rural areas – called Navjyoti and India Vision Foundation. These organisations successfully reach out to over 10,000 beneficiaries daily, in the areas of drug abuse treatment, schooling for children of prisoners, in addition to education, training, counseling, and health care.
Alongside of BEDI’s busy police and community work, she became a celebrated author of several books, anchors radio and television shows and is a columnist with leading newspapers and magazines. She is a sought after speaker on social, professional and leadership issues.
At the end of a long, celebrated and revolutionary police career, Bedi was headhunted to work with the United Nations as the Police Advisor to the Secretary General, in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations. She has represented India at the United Nations, and in International forums on crime prevention, drug abuse, police and prison reforms and women’s issues.
BEDI retired from the Indian police force in 2007, but is busier than ever continuing to work and grow her two NGO organisations, and travel the world to share her innovative police and prison reform methods, much to the chargrin of the Delhi Police Force whose regulations insist on their public servants remaining anonymous and out of the public arena.
Please visit www.kiranbedi.com