RESTORING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN A DEMOCRATIC INDIA

Kiran Bedi, first and highest ranking female officer, Indian Police Service (ret.), and Founder, Navjyoti and India Vision Foundation

A recent spate of high-profile corruption scandals in India has rattled the public’s confidence in the legitimacy of the country’s political and corporate governance and sent foreign investors scurrying. Kiran Bedi has devoted her career, often controversially, to tackling public sector corruption through reform efforts in India’s schools, prisons, and police bureaucracy. As our speakers throughout the season have noted, corruption routinely subverts social, political, and economic aims and poses enormous challenges to the realization of core development goals. Join us for the final program of our 2010-2011 Women and Global Development Forum series as Kiran Bedi discusses her pioneering work as the first woman in the Indian Police Service and the difficulty of pursuing social justice in the face of entrenched corruption, widespread poverty, and gender discrimination.

Kiran Bedi is India’s first and highest ranking woman police officer, and has repeatedly been voted one of the most admired women in India. Bedi joined the Indian Police Service in 1972 and retired in 2007. She has served as the police advisor to the U.N. secretary-general in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and has represented India at the United Nations and in numerous international forums. Since retiring from active police duty, Bedi has become an international activist on corruption, police and prison reform, women’s issues, and human welfare. She founded and runs two nonprofit organizations, Navjyoti and the India Vision Foundation, which provide education and vocational training to women and children living in India’s slums, rural areas, and prisons. Bedi has received dozens of international awards and commendations, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award, or the Asian Nobel Peace Prize. Bedi anchors several radio and television shows and has been the subject of various books and films, including the 2009 film Yes Madam, Sir. She received her LLB from Delhi University, her M.A. from Punjab University, and her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Yes Madam, Sir Trailer