https://indianmasterminds.com

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Equality is in the Mindset, Change It, And You Achieve It: Dr. Arti Singh, IPS

Indian Masterminds’ exclusive feature on Women’s Equality Day. 2006-batch IPS officer Dr. Arti Singh speaks about the inequality faced by women who are working professionals. Dr. Singh became the only woman police commissioner in India when she was promoted to the rank of DIG and received her posting.
Indian Masterminds Stories

When IPS officer Dr. Arti Singh joined the Police Commissionerate after being promoted to the rank of DIG, she became the only woman police commissioner in the country. The Police Commissioner of District Amravati in Maharashtra and a daredevil in every sense, Dr. Singh broke the glass ceiling at every point, proving that gender differences are only a concept that exists in people’s minds.

Today, on the occasion of Women’s Equality Day, Indian Masterminds presents an exclusive feature on Dr. Singh’s take on the kind of equality prevailing among bureaucrats, in today’s time.

BREAKING GLASS CEILINGS

From the very beginning, Dr. Singh has been breaking that invisible gender barrier that prevents women from reaching higher positions in life. The doctor turned IPS officer never gave up on her dream, even after receiving life-threatening intimidations and unsolicited advice, sometimes from her own team.

She stood strong and looked at the dangers on their face when she received postings in extremely dangerous and Naxal-affected regions such as Gadchiroli and Malegaon. Being the first woman IPS officer to have ever set foot in such ‘difficult’ districts, Dr. Singh was advised by several people, including her team, to apply for a transfer, but she did not budge and bravely handled everything that came her way, leaving her team surprised.

Her ‘Malegaon model’ of handling the Covid-19 pandemic in the best way possible drew a template for other districts and was praised by one and all.

Dr. Singh said, “This doesn’t stop here. There are many more glass ceilings that I am yet to break. My Commissionerate had been non-existent for the last 23 years and now I am the first lady CP of this Commissionerate. It’s a milestone for me and all the ladies in the service. I look forward to reaching many more such milestones and continuing to inspire others with my work.”

THE ACUTE SHORTAGE OF WOMEN IN BUREAUCRACY

From 1951, when the first woman joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), until 2020, women have made up only 13% of all IAS officers. Of 11,569 IAS officers who entered the civil services between 1951 and 2020, only 1,527 were women. Currently, 21% of serving IAS officers are women, as per data from the National Informatics Centre.

Talking about the prominent reasons behind this discrepancy, Dr. Singh told Indian Masterminds, “According to the Indian Society, the basic responsibility of a woman is to rear and care. A woman plays dual roles in her life. Along with handling her job, she also has to take care of her family responsibilities and children. Taking care of a child is not a single-day job. Till the time they grow up, you have to take care of every little thing for them, which requires a lot of attention. Amongst all this, it becomes extremely difficult for a woman to divide her focus between work and family, thus bringing an end to their careers, in some cases.”

According to her, the irony of it is that, when the women come back to their job, after a gap, the lack of experience and the time lost in between, causes further problems to their career as working institutions are hardly interested to experiment with people with gaps in their work timelines.

“The government has come up with childcare leave for two years but that isn’t sufficient. It is not easy for a woman to leave her two-year-old child behind and come to work. A working woman is different from a working mother. A working woman can still find substitutes for all the household responsibilities but there is no substitute for the role of a mother. I salute all the working mothers in the service and I believe this is the reason why there are such few women in bureaucracy,” stated Dr. Singh.

LACK OF WOMEN IN TOP-NOTCH POSITIONS

It’s 2022 and we are still coming across the first woman police commissioner, first woman DM of particular districts, and several other firsts for women officers in the country. It takes a bureaucrat several levels and steps to reach the topmost positions in the bureaucracy and it is not an affair of just a few years, but, why is there a discrepancy when it comes to women?

According to Dr. Singh, one of the reasons for this can be that 15-20 years back, not many women were interested in coming out of their houses to work, and become civil servants. There were hardly a few women officers in the country, which is a major reason why we barely find women in the topmost positions in the bureaucracy, and these positions go to men who have been in the service for that long.

“Secondly, when you take a gap in the service to fulfill family responsibilities and come back to work, your experience and exposure are not as much as your male colleagues who have no gaps in their resume and have been continuously working in the service. This is another practical reason why we don’t find many women on the topmost posts,” she told Indian Masterminds.

EMPATHISE, DON’T SYMPATHISE

She further said that to bring women on an equal panel with men, the utmost important thing is to bring a change in mindsets. The male counterparts should accept and empathize that every woman is playing a dual responsibility in their life. It’s a 24-hour job for working mothers. After fulfilling their professional duties during the day, they have to come back home and begin their motherly duties, as well. They hardly get time to rest. It is not easy for them.

“Even though a woman is overburdened, she does justice to both her jobs so the mentality that women are less productive has to go away and a certain empathy should come in male counterparts for their female colleagues,” she said.

The 2006-batch IPS officer also said that the feeling of owning responsibilities should come to women as well, and they should not use their dual lives as an excuse to get out of work, until absolutely necessary. “One should not take advantage of their situations and try to make adjustments in a way that they can fulfill all their responsibilities.”

A MESSAGE FOR ALL WOMEN

Dr. Singh wishes to give a message to all the women out there, “Equality is in the mindset, and the moment you change your mindset, more so from the male section, we would be able to achieve equality and there would come a time when we won’t have to especially celebrate this day and remind everyone that women should be treated equally.”

Indian Masterminds wishes everyone a Happy Women’s Equality Day.


Indian Masterminds Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Related Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
NEWS
Odisha Government
Odisha Elevates Two Promising IFS Officers to Senior Time Scale, Strengthening Forest Leadership - Know More About Them
Yogi Adityanath UP
Uttar Pradesh Floods: CM Yogi Adityanath Forms ‘Team-11’ for Swift and Transparent Flood Relief Across 12 Districts
DGR Job Fair
DGR Job Fair 2025 Held in Delhi to Empower Ex-Servicemen with Career Opportunities in Emerging Tech - Details Inside
omc
Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) Begins Dispatch from Dubna Mines, Strengthening Supply Chain and Industrial Growth
NFDC
NFDC Launches Free Residential 3D Animation & VFX Training for North East Youth - Here's All You Need To Know
CM Yogi
CM Yogi Adityanath Reviews Rs. 42,891 Crore Development Proposals for Lucknow Division, Emphasizes Timely, Inclusive Execution
Mahanadi River
Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai Assures Odisha of Consideration on an Amicable Solution to Mahanadi Water Dispute
MP News
Madhya Pradesh CM Dr. Mohan Yadav Pays Tribute to Pt. Ravishankar Shukla on His Birth Anniversary
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Videos
IAS Karn Satyarthi
How IAS Karn Satyarthi Transformed Gumla Through Empathy and Innovation
Ananth Rupanagudi IRAS
IRAS Ananth Rupanagudi’s Take on Corruption, Reform, and Duty
WhatsApp Image 2025-07-26 at 13.16
What Most Indians Don't Know About Jim Corbett
ADVERTISEMENT
UPSC Stories
BPSC Bihar police
From Lantern Light to Police Uniform: How Praveen Kumar from a Small Bihar Village Cracked BPSC to Become SDPO
From a lantern-lit village in Bihar to becoming an SDPO, Praveen Kumar's journey is a testament to resilience,...
IAS Priyansha Garg
Why Mindset Matters: IAS Priyansha Garg’s Mental Health Mantra for UPSC
After two failed prelims, Priyansha Garg cracked UPSC with AIR 31 in her fourth attempt, proving how...
Ashish Akshat
From Setback to State Topper: How Ashish Akshat Topped JPSC While Working Full-Time
Ashish Akshat from Dhanbad topped JPSC 2023, proving that resilience, discipline, and family support...
Social Media
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve: From India’s First Sanctuary to a Tiger Conservation Success Story | International Tiger Day Special
IAS Supriya Sahu Hails Mudumalai's Role in Tiger Conservation on Tiger Day. Declared in 1940, Now Among...
Mangroves
Mangroves: Nature’s Shield Against Disasters, Says Officer Parveen Kaswan on Mangroves Day - Watch His Post Here
Mangroves, with their dense, interlaced root systems, form a mesh-like structure that serves as a buffer...
Retired IPS Inderjit Singh Sidhu
Purpose Doesn’t Retire: How 88-Year-Old Retired DIG Becomes Chandigarh’s ‘Quiet Warrior’ of Cleanliness
Inderjit Singh Sidhu’s Dawn Patrol Earns Applause, Mahindra’s Praise for a Man Who Chose Action Over...
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Latest
Odisha Government
Odisha Elevates Two Promising IFS Officers to Senior Time Scale, Strengthening Forest Leadership - Know More About Them
Yogi Adityanath UP
Uttar Pradesh Floods: CM Yogi Adityanath Forms ‘Team-11’ for Swift and Transparent Flood Relief Across 12 Districts
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Videos
IAS Karn Satyarthi
Ananth Rupanagudi IRAS
WhatsApp Image 2025-07-26 at 13.16
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT