A Celebration of Women™

is elated to Celebrate the Life of this pioneer, a woman living ahead of the times trailing new paths for all women. Being one of the first female police officers inside her nation, she has been a woman leader since she first started her adult life.

Through her foundation work, this powerhouse also devotes a large amount of her energy and time to the betterment of the lives of others, with a focus presently on the organization works in Resettlement Colonies of North West Part of Delhi namely Bawana and Jahangirpuri, and an urbanized rural area called Karala and Villages in Gurgaon district, Sohna Block, Haryana.
Education, Women Empowerment and Vocational Training has been the primary areas of intervention by the organization in these communities.

 

WOMAN of ACTION™

 

 

Dr. Kiran Bedi

 
Dr. Kiran Bedi is a trailblazer, admired & loved by many in India. She is the first woman to join the elite Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972.

Her humane & fearless approach has greatly contributed to innumerable policing & prison reforms.

Kiran Bedi was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India. She is the second of four daughters of Prakash Peshawaria and Prem Peshawaria. Her three sisters are; Shashi, an artist settled in Canada, Reeta, a clinical psychologist and writer, and Anu, a lawyer.(Hons.) from the Government College for Women, Amritsar in 1968. She then earned a Master’s degree in Political Science from Punjab University, Chandigarh, graduating at the top of her class in 1970.

She later obtained Bachelor of Laws in 1988 from Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. In 1993, she obtained a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Department of Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi where the topic of her thesis was ‘Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence‘.

Kiran Bedi along with 15 other police officers set up Navjyoti India Foundation (NIF) in 1987, NIF started with a de-addiction and rehabilitation initiative for addicts and now the organization has expanded to other social issue like illiteracy and women empowerment. In 1994 Bedi setup India Vision Foundation which works in field of police reforms, prison reforms, women empowerment and rural and community development.

The drug abuse programs her group initiated has helped countless drug addicts across the country.

Her efforts have won national and international recognition, and her organizations were awarded the “Serge Soitiroff Memorial Award” for drug abuse prevention by the United Nations.

In July 1993, Kiran Bedi, the then Inspector-General of Prisons of Tihar Jail was pulled up by the Supreme Court of India for ignoring the apex court directives for providing medical attention to a foreign under-trial prisoner by initiating contempt proceedings against her.

In 1988, Wadhwa Commission criticized Bedi for her role in lathi-charge on lawyers protesting against a colleague’s arrest outside Bedi’s office. Karan Thapar, host of many popular interview shows published an article on controversies surrounding Bedi after she pulled out of one of Thapar’s interview show.

Bedi was criticized for being a hardliner in the negotiations with government over Lokpal bill. Later members of parliament proposed to bring a breach of privilege motion against Kiran Bedi and a few other activists for allegedly mocking the parliamentarians during the lokpal bill protests, however withdrew the notice later.

Kiran Bedi was alleged to have charged her hosts full fare for air tickets despite her paying discounted fare. She was also alleged to have charged her hosts business class fare while flying economy class and presenting false invoices. Bedi was also accused by an NGO of claiming business class fare from Delhi to Mumbai, while her travel intineray communicated to them showed she was flying from nearby Pune. Kiran Bedi has said that money was not earned for personal gains, but given to her NGO.

In 1992 Kiran Bedi’s daughter was given admission for MBBS course in Delhi’s Hardinge College under a quota for student’s from North-East. Kiran Bedi was posted in Mizoram at that time. She had defended the move to get her daughter admitted in a reserved seat saying that Central Government employees are entitled to such schemes.

Dr. Kiran Bedi visits Google’s Gurgaon, India office to discuss her book “It’s Always Possible: Transformation India’s Largest Prison.” This event took place on May 9, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.
 

 
 
On 26 November 2011, based on a complaint filed by a Delhi-based lawyer Devinder Singh Chauhan, the additional chief metropolitan magistrate Amit Bansal has directed the crime branch of Delhi police to register a case against Kiran Bedi within 24 hours, for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for her NGOs.

Consequently, Delhi Police has registered a case against Bedi under Section 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 120 b (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.

A non fiction feature film on Kiran Bedi’s life, Yes Madam, Sir, has been produced by Australian film maker, Megan Doneman. This film is being screened in film festivals around the world. Its commentator is an Academy Award winner, Helen Mirren. Kiran Bedi was present during its screenings in Toronto, Dubai and Adelaide, and to address the Q&A sessions at the end of each show.

The documentary has made a clean sweep of the award categories—“Best Documentary” with a cash award of $100,000, the biggest prize for a documentary in any film festival in the US and the Social Justice Award with $2500 at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Yes Madam, Sir got a unanimous vote from the jury.

In 2006, Norwegian Mpower Film & Media and film maker Oystein Rakkenes released another documentary on Bedi and her prison revolution in Tihar Central Jail, In Gandhi’s footsteps. The film was awarded Best Documentary at the Indo-American Film Festival in Atlanta, in November 2006.

 

Kiran Bedi managed one of India’s toughest prisons — and used a new focus on prevention and education to turn it into a center of learning and meditation. She shares her thoughts on crime and punishment from the stage at TEDWomen.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, HERE.
 
Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks .
 

 
 
Kiran Bedi also became host in 2009–10 on the TV show Aap Ki Kachehri Kiran Ke Saath on Star Plus.

Biographies of Bedi:

• I dare!: Kiran Bedi : a biography by Parmesh Dangwal
• Kiran Bedi, the kindly baton by Meenakshi Saxena

 
 

Awards

 

• Ramon Magsaysay Award (Philippines) for Government Service (Equivalent Asian Nobel Prize)
• Joseph Beuys Foundation Award (German) for Holistic & Innovative Management
• Morrison Tom Gitchoff Award (USA) for actions that have significantly improved the quality of justice in India.
• Pride of India Award (USA) for commitment towards Human Welfare, women’s rights, outstanding services and for upholding secular values
• Woman of the Year Award 2002 (Italy)
• Police Medal for Gallantry by the President of India
• Chinmoy Award 2003 for Welfare Policing
• In Apprececiation of Service to Humanity , Saheli , Boston (2004)
• Kiran Bedi honoured with UN medal
• Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice, 2005
• Global Trailblazer Award by the White House Project’s EPIC Awards for women’s Leadership in the media & popular culture.
• Star Parivar Award for the Most Dumdar Sadasya for the show Aap Ki Kachehri (2010)

ACADEMICS :

• MA (Pol. Sc.), LLB, PhD & Nehru Fellow

SPORTS :
• Asian & National Tennis Champion

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS :

• Director General , BPR&D (Bureau of Police
Research and Development, Ministry of Home Affairs)
• Director General, Home Guards & Director Civil Defence .
• United Nations as Civilian Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operation.
• Special Commissioner, Intelligence, Delhi Police
• Joint Commissioner of Police Training, Delhi Police
• Inspector General Prisons, Tihar Prison, Delhi
• Inspector General of Police, Chandigarh
• Special Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi

MAJOR INVITATIONS :

• Three UN conferences on Drug Abuse, Women & World Social Summit
• SAARC Workshop on Drug Trafficking at Islamabad
• Prison Governors Association, Annual conference at Buxton, UK
• Panelist with Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen, OSLO
• National Prayer Breakfast meeting with President Clinton

PUBLICATIONS :

• “It’s Always Possible”, a book – on the transformation of the largest prison in the world
• “What Went Wrong” – compilation of Real Life Stories (Now also a Serial on National Television )
• Co-authored ‘Government@net’ on e-governance
• ‘I-Dare’ & ‘The Kindly Baton’ (Biographies)
• Regular Columnist National Dailies, ‘Times of India’ & ‘The Tribune’, ‘Punjab Kesri’ , ‘Navbharat Times ‘ and ‘ The Indian Express ‘ ( North American Edition )
• Co-authored ‘Broom & Groom’ with Pavan Choudhary on Civic sense.

DOCUMENTARY :

• A non fiction feature film on Dr Kiran Bedi’s life entitled “Yes Madam, Sir” has been produced by Australian film maker, Megan Doneman. This film is being screened in film festivals around the world. Its commentator is an Academy Award winner, Helen Mirren. Dr Kiran Bedi was present during its screenings in Toronto, Dubai and Adelaide, and to address the Q&A sessions at the end of each show. Every time it has been screened, it has received a standing ovation.

• The documentary has made a clean sweep of the award categories—“Best Documentary” with a cash award of $100,000, the biggest prize for a documentary for any film festival in the US and the Social Justice Award with $2500.00 at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. ‘Yes Madam, Sir’ got a unanimous vote from the jury.

TV SHOW :

• Dr. Kiran Bedi hosts a first of it’s kind, an Indian reality- justice TV show about real life situations called “Aap Ki Kachehri… Kiran Ke Saath”.

• The series premiered on the television channel, Star Plus and is a platform for settling disputes between consenting individuals. The series is based on real-life disputes and gives the viewers’ access to real-life circumstances they can relate to and learn from.

• ‘Aap Ki Kachehri… Kiran Ke Saath’ undertakes insights into human conducts and values to offer education on the application of human rights and laws. The purpose is to get affected parties to discuss the issues and look at possible solutions to their problems outside of courts.

Nov 13th, 2011

(Reuters) – Anti-corruption campaigner Kiran Bedi speaks during a televised debate on “The Indian Spring: Seeking Independence from Corruption” at the World Economic Forum (WEF) India Economic Summit in Mumbai November 13, 2011. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Work Info
Employer: India Vision Foundation
Position: Chair Person
Location: New Delhi, India

Description: India Vision Foundation is the baby of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, received for forging ‘positive relationships’ between people and the police through creative leadership. Awards propel and demand more work with greater commitment. India Vision Foundation borne out of the Award, (equivalent to Asian Nobel prize), seeks to carry forward its service in all those areas which were the basis of the award.

Namely: Police and Prison Reforms, Women Empowerment among others. ‘Saving the next victim‘ remains its mantra. As we go along, each day is becoming an award by itself in so many ways.

Employer: Navjyoti India Foundation
Position: General Secretary
Location: New Delhi, India

Description: Navjyoti India Foundation came in to being in the year 1988 as the brain child of Dr. Kiran Bedi.

The organization was setup with the idea of promoting welfare policing, the outcome of which was our drug de-addiction program. Since its inception, Navjyoti India Foundation (NIF) has made significant contributions in other areas like education, women empowerment, family counseling, rural and urban development, health, HIV/AIDS, environment as well. Everyday we bring joy and smiles to over 12,000 people. The impact is huge. It is the relentless efforts of our ever growing family working day in and day out.

Navjyoti India Foundation came into being in the year 1988 and has been working with underserved communities ever since its inception in 1987. Presently, the organization works in Resettlement Colonies of North West Part of Delhi namely Bawana and Jahangirpuri, and an urbanized rural area called Karala and Villages in Gurgaon district, Sohna Block, Haryana.

Education, Women Empowerment and Vocational Training has been the primary areas of intervention by the organization in these communities. Health care, environment interventions and community participation are also being run for promoting integrated community development services.

Navjyoti India Foundation is not just another organization.  

It truly is what the name states – A New Flame – for a better life!

(Kiran Bedi in an interview with Anubhav Srivastava for the film Carve Your Destiny) If we live with the prayer “Keep me gifted, so that I have enough to gift“, I think it is success all along, it is joy all along and it is achievement all along.

Carve your Destiny is a mega project by Anubhav, a 23 year old from New Delhi, India. This documentary film is an ambitious venture that seeks to investigate the mentality of the super successful through in depth interviews with achievers themselves. Numerous people from various fields have been interviewed and many more will be interviewed before the final film is released.

Some of the people who have already been interviewed and will appear in the film are:
1) Kiran Bedi: The most well known and respected Indian female police officer. She is an author, a social activist and a television personality as well.
2) Deepak Puri: The chairman of Moser Baer, the second largest optical storage media manufacturer in the world.
3) Sushil Kumar: Olympic Medal Winner in Wrestling (Beijing 2008)
4) Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: Chairperson of Biocon, one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world and largest in India. She is also the richest woman in India.
5) Jatin Das: One of the most celebrated painters in India.
6) Vinod Dua: One of the most famous Television Presenters in India.
7) Som Mittal: President of NASSCOM, the largest association of Software Companies in the country.
8) Sheila Dixit: The third time re-elected Chief Minister of New Delhi, the capital of India (equivalent to Governor in USA).
9) Shiv Khera: Internationally renowned motivator and best selling author.
10) Ekta Chowdhry: Miss India Universe 2009.

The ultimate purpose of this film is to help viewers in understanding the qualities required for success in any field and to inspire them to go on to become incredible achievers themselves.

CURRENT EVENTS

Annual Reunion 2021 | Book Reading with Dr. Kiran Bedi

What is stopping Women from coming into Leadership ? (Women’s Day 2021) | Dr. Kiran Bedi

 
 

FIND KIRAN BEDI HERE:
 
Kiran Bedi on Twitter @thekiranbedi
 
Kiran Bedi FANPAGE – Facebook
 
Kiran Bedi – I DARE! ( Facebook )
 
Instagram @kiranbediofficial
 
Nominated by Meetika Srivastava

 

 
 

A Celebration of Women™

welcomes this visionary into our global Alumni with open arms, and look forward to many future collaborations in the realm of bettering the lives of women and children around the globe, through the healing of all.

 

 

Brava Dr. Kiran!

 

Original Post: July 2013. Up-dated Nov 2021.