Ms Uninterrupted

Outlook correspondent Seema Sirohi writes on the large number of Indian women heading diplomatic missions abroad. New York, Germany, China and Ghana to name a few.


Women in the Indian Foreign Service have decidedly broken through the glass door of paternalism and protection, shattering one of the last remaining outposts of male exclusivity to become India's ambassadors in capitals so far considered too important, too tough or too dangerous for them. From Beijing to Berlin, from Beirut to Doha, women are flying the Indian flag, facing challenges of war and staring down rivals at the negotiating table. The sari no longer means having to say sorry to difficult assignments.

Women are heading 26 Indian missions and consulates around the world—an impressively large number that includes the hitherto forbidden Arab world where even the West rarely sends women diplomats. Today, Nengcha Lhouvum is India's ambassador to Lebanon where she has seen bombs explode from her balcony (see Bullets In Beirut). Meera Shankar represents India in Germany, and is seen as a frontrunner for the position of India's next permanent representative at the UN in New York. In China, it's Nirupama Rao who reads the intricate tea leaves for India, managing the often tense relationship between two Asian giants. Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa is getting ready to be the first woman envoy to Qatar where most of her counterparts will be in dark suits or the white robes worn by Arab men. She hopes to reach a part of Arab society that other ambassadors can't access—women, who are increasingly a voice in this more open among Arab countries.


To Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi's citadel, India has sent Manimekalai Murugesan, while the Indian High Commission in Australia is headed by Sujatha Singh. No territory seems forbidden or forbidding anymore. Important consulates from New York, where Neelam Deo is the consul general, to Shanghai, where Riva Ganguly Das is preparing to make her mark, are all headed by women. They're telling and living the story of India, procuring oil and defence deals, and hobnobbing with presidents and prime ministers around the world. And why not? As Nirupama Rao said, "It marks a very healthy stage in the evolution of the foreign service. It shows confidence in women who are being entrusted with serious responsibilities."

Ruchi Ghanashyam, India's high commissioner to Ghana, can vouch for that. Considered extremely bright, she was the first woman officer to be posted to Islamabad at a time when harassment of Indian diplomats was routine and life wasn't just wine receptions and picking on delicate hors d'oeuvre. Ghanashyam also served in Nepal and India's mission in New York. She hasn't experienced any gender bias and says she has been treated as a professional all along—a sentiment voiced by many occupying the upper layers today. India appointed Chokila Iyer its first woman foreign secretary in 2001, a move seen by many as tokenism but nonetheless, it was a first.

But it wasn't always like that. Rewind just thirty years when women faced unapologetic prejudice in those cavernous corridors of South Block where they walk with confidence these days, their saris rustling and mobiles ringing. There was a time when IFS women had to give a written undertaking that they would resign if they married. The blatantly unfair rules were changed thanks to India's first woman IFS officer, C.B. Muthamma, who moved the Supreme Court in 1979 to protest the rampant gender bias and won.