WOMAN TO KNOW

AKRITI JAMWAL

Shakti Devi made National and International headlines in 2014, the year when she was honored with the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2014 at the 52nd International Association of Women Police Conference, Winnipeg, Canada, for showing highly professional determination and her ‘exceptional achievements’ of empowering female police officers in Afghanistan despite safety and security risks. According to her, she won the prestigious award which she achieved by ‘doing nothing extra-ordinary but her routine work’ and this reveals a lot about her zeal to give her best to whatever she is assigned. And that explains the headlines she makes every now and then for doing exceptional on call of duty. Today we bring you SHAKTI DEVI, a woman, we need to know about.

Today she has almost 18 years of professional police experience in Jammu and Kashmir Police Organization and has an ever growing list of accomplishments and honors to her name. She made her name known at international level in 2014, by achieving the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award, 2014. We all are aware about the hardship one has to face in strife-torn Afghanistan but Shakti Devi took up the opportunity to be part of UN peacekeeping operations and got deployed with UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2013 to 2015. She held a critical role in leading the establishment of Women Police Councils and made it fully operational, assisting them towards achieving their goals of fully adopting democratic principles of policing by contributing to the improvement of the status of female police officers; never letting the enormity of the challenge interfere with her commitment to the job.

Shakti’s capacity to advocate at all levels of police hierarchy and act as an effective trainer to impart knowledge and skills has tremendously helped in ensuring marked improvement in the police service delivery in Afghanistan. In particular, she convinced local police leadership to undertake safety outreach programs in schools that provide safety to girl students. “In addition, her consistent engagement in improving the service for victims of sexual and gender-based violence has led to successful investigation and prosecution,” read the report of UN agency. It was because of this that the officer was selected by a committee comprising IAWP, UN DPKO and the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institute, New York and honoured with this prestigious award.

But this was not the first time Shakti was part of any Peace-Keeping mission; prior to this, she has also served UN peace mission in Timor-Leste between February 2012 and November2012, for which she was shortlisted in 2010 after appearing in the examination for serving with the United Nations Mission. There she was legislation advisor and her role was to mentor the East Timore Police, with an aim to improve their policing, help them in investigations, registration of cases with special focus on how to handle women related issues in Police Stations. She got selected along with two Philippines women on Afghan mission from East Timore. She initially joined the UN mission in Afghanistan in May 2013 for one year but in 2014, she got one year extension up to May 2015, for her exemplary work.

Let us begin her story from 1973, when in remote farming hamlet Bharnara of Majalta area in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir, Shakti was born to a Floor-mill worker Bansi Lal and home-maker Pushpa Devi. She was brought up along with her four sisters and two brothers (one of whom they lost, unfortunately), in lower-middle class. So, she was aware of the struggle to make the ends meet right from her childhood. The tough cop hat Shakti today is, probably traces back to her tough childhood. She, like any other kid belonging to poor families in the area, used to fetch fire wood from forests and rare cattle. She also used help her father at the mill and her mother in kitchen along with studying.

She attained her primary education from the Government school in the village. After 5th standard, for next three years, she had to travel 5 kilometers daily on foot to school in a nearby village Dhamma. After finishing class 8th, she went to Higher Secondary School Majalta, at a distance of 10 kilometers from her home. She used to travel 20 kilometers daily, majority of the times on foot, as there were very few buses plying those days. When she lost her mother, right after she finished her Matric, the sixteen year old Shakti thought it was end of her studies, as the girls of the village used to drop out after 5th or 8th standard and hardly a few studied up to 10th standard. But much to her surprise, her father let her pursue further studies.

Shakti is grateful that despite of all the financial hardships and being illiterate, both her parents, right from her early childhood, were encouraging and supportive to attain education. She further got graduated in Sciences, from Women’s College Gandhi Nagar in Jammu. Not stopping even after becoming first graduated girl in the village and making everyone proud of her, she later completed M.Sc. in Mathematics, M.A. in political science and Bachelors in Education (B. Ed.). The teachers those days were very supportive but strict, encouraging and supportive.

The desire to join police force surfaced while she was in college, because she wanted to contribute for betterment of the society. “I was not aware about Kashmir Police Service (KAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), so joining the police force is the best way for me to contribute (for society). I believed that by joining police, I will gain authority and as a police officer, I can get the things moving in right direction easily” shares Shakti.

To achieve her aim, she started playing games, mostly volley ball, which she played at national level 2-3 times while in college. Being skeptical about Police, her father was interested in her joining Education department as a teacher but he had no option but to agree construing her dedication and passion towards her only dream. “When my father finally agreed, he made me pledge that I would never conduct against the morals. I am acting upon that pledge even today,” Says Shakti. Unfortunately, she lost her father, after five years of joining police force, in 2004 and feels sad that none of her parents could witness her accomplishments.

Shakti joined as Sub-Inspector in Jammu and Kashmir Police in 1999. “I mostly got prized postings for my hard work and sincerity. I was mostly posted as SHO in Police Stations with few stints in between with the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police,” shares Shakti. She was SHO Women’s Cell (2009-2012) during which she handled 3500 complaints of women ranging from matrimonial disputes, domestic violence to rapes etc. “I managed to settle 80-90 percent cases by involving local elders, NGOs, community leaders, local representatives like MLAs. The rest 10-20 percent cases were sent to courts,” says Shakti.

Shakti cherishes the experience when Police Station was more like a community centre and even complex issues were resolved within a year, stating that it changed her perception and broadened her vision and she felt satisfied by resolving women’s issues. “Even today I get calls and messages from those whose cases I settled. I feel happy that their lives have been settled peaceably,” says Shakti

Talking about surviving in male-dominated profession, she says that opposite to all the prevailing notions, her experience has been quite comforting right from her training period. She says that she was always supported by her male batch-mates and colleagues. She reminisces how, when she joined services as probationer, then SHO of Trikuta Nagar Police Station Shamsher Singh Parihar, inspired and mentored her; SP Farooq Khan supported and rewarded her when she was SHO Residency Road; the then SSP, Kamal Saini, posted her as SHO of then newly established SHO women’s Police Station, being two years in the service; how even her senior police officers – Mukesh Singh, Rupinder Chilotra, Farooq Khan, Prabat Singh and DGP, K Rajinder encouraged her. She is grateful how all these men contributed in grooming her.

Today, herself being role model of various aspirants, who want to join police force following her footsteps, she claims that her role model is Kiran Bedi, the first female Indian Police Services (IPS) officer, and she aspires to be tough police officer and professional like her. She boasts that being women should never be a weakness even physically. She believes that every women is both mentally and physically strong, she just have to realize it and push herself beyond the self-imposed limits. She used to run 10 kilometers in the morning with a rifle daily and always stood first in the race. She was declared best outdoor cadet and at the passing out parade, the then Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, told her at the award ceremony, she drubbed boys. “If you are sincere, hard-working, have faith in yourself and exhibit confidence, it does not matter if it is a male-dominated profession. You can survive anything and grow,” says Shakti.

Speaking about crimes against women such as female child-marriage, female-feticide and infanticide, , sexual violence, dowry killing, trafficking, domestic violence, violence at work place, acid attacks etc, Shakti believes that they need to be strictly dealt by making sure the proper implementation of law and order, fair trial and proper execution of punishment to perpetrators of these crimes. She also puts emphasis on the importance of making women aware about these problems and their rights.

Her message for women of state is to realize the essence of being independent and self-reliant to live with dignity. She believes that it is imperative for women to be aware of their inherent strength to fight all social, economic, political and other adversities. She says that if every woman reach out to at least one underprivileged woman and work for her upliftment, we can make a big difference in society around her.

Today, Shakti Devi has been deported centrally and is living the life of a legend. She is an inspiration not only because of her achievements but also of her journey. She is an example of the kind of women who have the courage and strength to turn their lives downside-up. But like any other such women who are tough outside, she is soft like coconut from inside. She is a woman who is attached to her roots, even after travelling all around. She is a women who unwinds and find herself and her peace, in the small village she was born and brought up in; the same village that does not have world class facilities to offer but just the memories of her childhood, which was filled with hardships but lead her to where she is today.