8 Indian Women Collectors Who Are Making India Proud

These 8 Indian women collectors are a great motivation for Indian girls, and are giving us goals for life! Read more here. 

These eight Indian women collectors are a great motivation for little Indian girls, and are giving us #goals for life! Read more here. 

A Collector is a civil servant, who is responsible for the collection of land revenue, other kinds of Government taxes, fees, and all dues recoverable as arrears of land revenue. They are responsible for ensuring the maintenance of accurate and up-to-date records of rights as regards the land.

8 Indian women collectors

Clearing the Civil Services Examination and becoming an IAS officer is one of the most prestigious careers in our country, without a doubt. And it should be, ’cause passing the exam is not an easy task.

Here are 8 women collectors making the nation proud.

Rohini R Bhajibhakare (2008 batch)

Women collectors IAS

Recently chosen as the collector of the Salem district in Tamil Nadu, Rohini Bhajibhakare was awarded the Excellence in Implementation of MNREGA award in August 2016 for her work in Madurai which dealt with providing jobs in watershed development work and which also helped raise the level of the groundwater table of the place. She also holds the crown for making Madurai the first open-defecation free district of the state.

Rohini always wanted to be an IAS officer and feels a deep sense of duty towards the country and its people. She even cleared the exam in her very first attempt without the help of any coaching centers!

“When I was getting into the IAS for training, my father told me, ‘You will get a lot of files on your table from now on. Never see the files as just papers. Just remember that by your signature, either lakhs of people will be benefited or lives will change for the worse. You have to always think of what is good for the people’.” – she told The Hindu Business Line

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Amrapali Kata (2010 batch)

Women collectors IAS

Appointed the collector of Warangal in 2016, Amrapali Kata has quite a following on social media due to her bridging the gap between the youth and the authorities, and bringing them together to improve the district of Warangal. She aims to utilize the tourism industry for the growth of the district and provide 24/7 water supply to the people of the area.

Before being made the Collector and District Magistrate of Warangal in 2016, she worked as a sub-collector of Vikarabad District and was transferred to work as the Director of the Women and Child Welfare Department in 2014.

Riju Bafna (2013 batch)

Women collectors IAS

Ranking 77 in the 2013 UPSC Exam, Riju Bafna is a relatively young IAS officer who was in the news for speaking out against sexual harassment by a member of the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission. She had been immensely supported by social media in this matter.

T V Anupama (2011 batch)

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Perhaps the most famous of this list, T V Anupama is the current District Collector of Alappuzha since August 2017. She managed to expose the violation of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act by a resort owned by Thomas Chandy, the Transport Minister. She received a lot of flak for her work but was supported by the High Court in her decision and hence, took down the minister.

In the past too, as a Food Safety Commissioner, she was famous for the raids that she undertook that rendered the bare the high level of adulterants that were being used along with the reckless use of pesticides in the fruits and vegetables brought in Kerela from other states.

“Whether as Food Safety Commissioner or Collector I serve the people and their interest and well-being is my top priority. I follow the rules closely. The important thing is to apply the rules properly and I am least bothered about the impact of my decisions on my career,” Anupama told The Hindu

Pranjal Patil (2017 batch)

Women collector IAS

India’s first visually challenged IAS officer, Pranjal Patil took over as a Sub-Collector in Thiruvananthapuram in 2019. Having lost her vision at the age of six did not deter her from her dream of becoming an IAS officer.

She cleared the UPSC exam in 2016, on her first attempt with a rank of 773. However, she was refused a job in the Indian Railway Accounts Service citing the reason that she was visually challenged. This did not deter her and in next year, she improved her ranking and took over as the Sub-collector in 2019.

Ritu Sain (2003 batch)

When Ritu Sain posted in Ambikapur in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh in 2014, on her very first day, she was met with the stench of trash due to open dump yards. In an interview, she spoke of how there was an open dump yard right in front of a Municipal Corporation sign welcoming people into the city.

She began by getting people to segregate their wet and dry waste. Then, with the help of several women based self-help groups, she designed a self-sustaining model to collect, segregate and manage the waste.

Due to her efforts, Ambikapur was declared the cleanest and smallest city in a cleanliness survey conducted by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.

Bharathi Hollikeri (2010 batch)

When she was the Collector of Medak district in Telangana, Bharathi Hollikeri launched many people-centric schemes. She brought numerous exceptional changes to the education system. And implemented a scheme to provide healthy and hygienic food for new mothers and pregnant women in primary health centres. She did so by linking these to Anganwadis.

In 2019, she took charge of Mancherial district in Telangana as the District Collector.

Sreedhanya Suresh (2018 batch)

Sreedhanya Suresh was the first tribal woman from Kerala to have cracked the IAS exam and took charge as the Assistant Collector of Kozhikode in June 2020.

She worked as a Project Assistant in Wayanad in the government tribal development. Here, she saw the respect that people showered on the then-Sub-Collector. And it was her interaction with the Sub-Collector that strengthened her resolve to become an IAS officer.

Assuming charge during a pandemic is a major responsibility but one that Sreedhanya is not afraid of taking up.

These are just some of the many amazing women who have worked wonders as collectors and brought about social change in their jurisdictions. This proves that women only need opportunities to do what they are capable of. If these mighty women don’t fill you up with motivation then I don’t know what will!


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Picture credits for 8 Indian Women Collectors: Twitter and YouTube

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Parul Sharma

New Delhi, India I like to read, write, and talk. A feminist through and through, with a soft spot for chocolate. read more...

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