Kiran Bedi

Kiran Bedi PPMG PNBB (born 9 June 1949) is a former tennis player who became the first woman in India to join the officer ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972 and was the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 28 May 2016 to 16 February 2021. She remained in service for 35 years before taking voluntary retirement in 2007 as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development.

As a teenager, Bedi was crowned the national junior tennis champion in 1966. Between 1965 and 1978, she won several titles at various national and state-level championships. After joining the IPS, Bedi served in Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh and Mizoram. She started her career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in the Chanakyapuri area of Delhi, and won the President's Police Medal in 1979. Next, she moved to West Delhi, where she brought about a reduction in crimes against women. Subsequently, as a traffic police officer, she oversaw traffic arrangements for the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1983 in Goa. As Deputy Commissioner of Police of North Delhi, she launched a campaign against drug abuse, which evolved into the Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation (renamed to Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007).

In May 1993, Bedi was posted to the Delhi Prisons as Inspector General (IG). She introduced several reforms at Tihar Jail, which won her the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994. In 2003, Bedi became the first Indian and first woman to be appointed head of the United Nations Police and Police Advisor in the United Nations Department of Peace Operations. She resigned in 2007, to focus on social activism and writing. She runs the India Vision Foundation. During 2008–11, she hosted a court show Aap Ki Kachehri. She was one of the key leaders of the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in January 2015. She unsuccessfully contested the 2015 Delhi Assembly election as the party's Chief Minister candidate.

Kiran Peshawaria was born on 9 June 1949 in Amritsar, East Punjab, Dominion of India, into a Punjabi business family. She is the second child of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata (born Janak Arora). She has three sisters: Shashi, Reeta, and Anu. Her great-great-grandfather Lala Hargobind had migrated from Peshawar to Amritsar, where he set up a business. Bedi's upbringing was not very religious, but she was brought up in both Hindu and Sikh traditions (her grandmother was a Sikh, although her other family members were Hindu). Prakash Lal helped with the family's textile business, and also played Tennis.

Bedi's grandfather Muni Lal controlled the family business and gave an allowance to her father. He cut this allowance when Bedi's elder sister Shashi was enrolled in the Sacred Heart Convent School, Amritsar. Although the school was 16 km away from their home, Shashi's parents believed it offered a better education than other schools. Muni Lal was opposed to his grandchild being educated in a Christian school. However, Prakash Lal declared financial independence and enrolled all his daughters, including Kiran, in the same school. Bedi started her formal studies in 1954, at the Sacred Heart Convent School in Amritsar. She participated in National Cadet Corps (NCC), among other extra-curricular activities. At that time, Sacred Heart did not offer science; instead, it had a subject called "household", which was aimed at grooming girls into being good housewives.

When Bedi was in Class 9, she joined the Cambridge College, a private institute that offered science education and prepared her for the matriculation exam. By the time her former schoolmates at Sacred Heart cleared Class 9, she cleared the Class 10 (matriculation) exam. Bedi graduated in 1968, with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English, from Government College for Women at Amritsar. The same year, she won the NCC Cadet Officer Award. In 1970, she obtained a Master's degree in Political Science from Panjab University in Chandigarh.

From 1970 to 1972, Bedi taught as a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar. She taught courses related to political science. Later, during her career in the Indian Police Service, she also earned a Bachelors of Law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in 1988 and a Doctorate of Philosophy from the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi's Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in New Delhi in 1993.

Inspired by her father, Bedi started playing tennis at the age of nine. As a teenage tennis player, she cut her hair short as it interfered with her game. In 1964, she played her first tournament outside Amritsar, participating in the national junior lawn tennis championship at Delhi Gymkhana. She lost in early rounds, but came back to win the trophy two years later, in 1966. As the national champion, she was eligible for entry to the Wimbledon junior championship, but was not nominated by the Indian administration.