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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
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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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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