Chennai, July 24: The debate over the Women’s Reservation Bill for women’s empowerment in politics may go on until kingdom come but in bureaucracy, at least, women are being empowered in one state—run by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Whether it’s in the Secretariat or outside, non-official appointments or senior posts in the police department, women are getting top jobs prompting many a critic—usually men—to mutter that this is the women’s ‘‘golden era.’’

Over two dozen women IAS and IPS officers head a string of crucial departments, commissions and for the first time, even the Wakf Board.
This trend began with the introduction of a string of ‘‘women-exclusives,’’ like all-women police stations, mahila courts to provide speedier justice to women and even a woman commando force.
While Lakshmi Pranesh has been appointed as the first woman Chief Secretary of the State, Sheela Priya and Sheela Balakrishnan are Secretary to the Governor and the Chief Minister respectively.
Similarly, the posts of Special Officers in the CM’s Secretariat and the CM’s Special Cell are held by Reeta Harish Thakkar and Dr S Swarna respectively.
Interestingly, in the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, for the first time a woman, Bader Sayeed—known for her distinguished legal and educational background—has been appointed chairperson.
Says Sayeed: ‘‘I feel like I am on top of the world. The CM, knowing very well that women can perform well has given important postings to efficient persons.’’
Says M B Pranesh, IAS, Labour Secretary and husband of Lakshmi Pranesh: ‘‘This is a good development that women are made to head various departments. This will be good for the society.’’
Besides the high-profile offices of the CM and the Governor, senior women IAS officers, in their capacity as Secretaries, head several departments: Social Welfare (C K Gariyali); Rural Development (Shanta Sheela Nair); Youth and Sports (Susan Mathew); Health (Girija Vaidyanathan).
While the independent Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission is headed by former senior IAS officer Yashmin Ahmed, Thangam Sankaranarayanan, another senior IAS officer, is the chairperson of the Teachers Recruit Board, in charge of recruiting teachers to government schools.
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, another important government undertaking, is headed by Sheela Rani Chunkath, IAS. Another senior IAS officer Jayanti is the Vice-Chairperson of the prestigious Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, in charge of planning and Developing the Chennai City.
Similarly in the Chennai Corporation, Apoorva, IAS, is posted as its Additional Commissioner.
M B Nirmala, IAS, heading the Directorate of Fisheries, says she is happy to get the post in the present regime. She says it was first of all wrong to differentiate between men and women officers.
The long list of notable postings for women seems to continue. In the police area, while Letika Saran and G Thilakavathi, both senior women IPS officers, are posted as Additional DGP (Training) and Additional DGP (Coastal Security Group) respectively; Sri Lakshmi Prasad, IPS, was recently appointed as DIG of Vellore range. P C Thenmozhi and B Balanagadevi have been posted as SP of Perambalur and the Nilgiris districts respectively.
Similarly, P Vijayalakshmi is the Director of Medical Education. J R Vijayalakshmi is the DME (Schemes) and in charge of Directorate of Medical Services too. Even the newly started Thiruvalluvar University is headed by a woman—Annavi Suseela Thirumaran, as its Vice-Chancellor.