Ms. Charu Sinha, a Telangana cadre IPS officer of 1996 batch, holds the distinction of being the first IPS officer in the country amongst men and women officers, who headed four sectors of CRPF – Bihar, Jammu, Srinagar and now the Southern sector. Belonging to the 1996-batch of IPS, she has added may firsts in her name.
Today on the special occasion of International Women’s Day, we present super-inspiring and motivating story of this woman IPS officer who navigated her own way in this male-dominated profession.
MANY FIRSTS
Inspired by an IPS officer cousin she also cleared the UPSC exam to get into the Indian Police Service (IPS). Recently she got transferred as IG, CRPF (Southern Sector). Speaking to Indian Masterminds, she said, “Throughout my career, -whether it was Pulivendula in Kadapa district or Eluru in West Godavari, I was the first woman ASP to be posted in all these places.”
Before her stint as an IG, she held various positions in Telangana and served as the 1st lady SP in Prakasam, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Chittoor and East Godavari districts. She was also the SP of Intelligence security wing. She said, “All of us, as women, need to learn to navigate our way through systems, beliefs, and standards of working which have been established by men. The idea was to understand it, become very good at it and at the same time learn how to raise the bar, contribute and make policing more sensitive.”
COMMUNITY POLICING
Naxalism was at its peak when Sinha joined the service. She tackled this challenge with her multi-pronged strategy. Sharing some anecdotes she said, “While serving in Mahbubnagar, it was a community outreach program because of which the villagers advised the DCS Ramakant and his wife Rajita, to surrender. The Naxalites surrendered with AK47 and lot of land mines. Community outreach programs helped us in reaching various sections of the society.”
She also remembers the HIV affected women and children having been abandoned by their families in Chittoor. She said, “We helped these 60 women and children in getting property rights by talking to the local population, sarpanches etc.”
In Prakasham and Mahbubnagar district she worked with the Chenchu tribals who used to conduct famine raids on the FCI godowns and take away the grains, as they had no food to eat and no land to cultivate. Ms. Sinha said, “These tribals were unaware of the law. So, we made posters and through pictographic representation we explained to them that what they were doing was illegal and can put them behind bars. All of them discontinued the practice soon after.”
The officer believed in connecting with the people through these outreach programs, which helped her in building a good intelligence network and conducting better operations.
SENSITIVE AREAS
She is the only woman IPS officer in the country to handle both naxalism and terrorism.
She undertook outreach programs in Bihar as IG CRPF through skilling operations for the youngsters. Then she shifted to other critical places like Jammu and Kashmir where “The threat of grenade attacks, standoff firing and sticky bombs has been very acute in Kashmir and we had to evolve our own SOPs in a way that our men our well protected,” says Ms Sinha, where her focus shifted to operations and intelligence generation.
Ms. Sinha also headed the Valley QAT, a deadly commando unit in Srinagar, which was responsible for conducting all the operations in Srinagar. Her main focus was on ensuring that the training of the Commando Unit was fine-tuned as it is the only urban intervention Commando unit in the country, which has maximum experience in conducting daily operations. She also raised the 1st woman Commando unit in Srinagar.
Now that Ms. Sinha has come back to her home soil, she says, “All my learning in Andhra and Telangana cadre helped me tremendously in understanding Kashmir better. Now as I’m back to my home, it feels wonderful to come back with such a rich experience. I look forward to see how I can contribute here.”
