The first woman IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh, Satwant Atwal Trivedi, has been given the additional charge of the post of Director General of Police (DGP). The Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led state government has issued an order regarding this.
Ms. Trivedi is a 1996-batch IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre. She is presently posted as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Ms. Trivedu has been serving the country as an IPS officer for 26 years. As a woman officer, she has breached many glass ceilings. She hails from Bilaspur in Himachal.
She was awarded President’s Police Medal (PPM) for distinguished service in January this year.
She not only carries the distinction of being the first IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh, but also the first woman officer in Border Security Forces (BSF) and National Investigation Agency (NIA). She was also the first woman SP in Himachal Pradesh.
She is known for raising her voice on issues related to women in uniform.
Ms. Trivedi was born into a civil servant’s family, her father was an IAS officer. Growing up in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, she completed her studies from St Bede’s College and Auckland House School in Shimla. Like many others, she, too, was fascinated by the police uniform.
She reminisced the time when she was a student: “I had a professor who used to tell me that since there was no lady IPS officer in the state and I seemed very determined, I should appear for the civil services exam, as it would be nice if the state gets its first lady IPS officer,” she told Indian Masterminds.
These words came true in 1996 when she managed to crack the CSE and joined IPS, becoming the first lady IPS officer from Himachal Pradesh.
Ms. Trivedi was the first lady to serve as the Superintendent of Police at Una district of Himachal Pradesh, besides being the first woman police officer of the Border Security Forces (BSF) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi. During her 14-year central deputation period, Ms. Atwal also served at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad (2004-09). Apart from this, she also served as the Joint Secretary at NATGRID before coming back to her home cadre, Himachal Pradesh, where she got promoted to the rank of ADGP.
However, these 26 years of service as an IPS officer were full of testing times, having to prove herself often as, in her words, she was a “new species in a male bastion. Women often have to prove themselves in this profession and each officer carries her own journey and tests. They are questioned everywhere and it is one thing they have to deal with.”
The post of DGP in the state was lying vacant after DGP Sanjay Kundu went on a month-long leave last week.
