New Delhi
Born on 9 June, 1949, in Amritsar, in a well-to-do Punjabi business family, the second child of Prakash Lal Peshawaria and Prem Lata, she has three sisters. A graduate in English from Government College for Women at Amritsar, Bedi obtained a master’s degree in political science from Panjab University, Chandigarh. Later, during her career in the Indian Police Service, she also earned a law degree at Delhi University in 1988 and a PhD from IIT Delhi’s Department of Social Sciences in 1993.
On 16 July, 1972, Bedi started her police training at the National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. She was the only woman in a batch of 80 men, and became the first woman IPS officer. After joining IPS, Bedi served in Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh and Mizoram.
She started her career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Chanakyapuri area of Delhi, and won the President’s Police Medal in 1979. In May 1993, she was posted to the Delhi Prisons as Inspector General (IG). She introduced far-reaching reforms at Tihar Jail, which gained worldwide acclaim and won her the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994.
She was one of the key leaders of the 2011 pan-India anti-corruption movement, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in January 2015. She unsuccessfully contested the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections as the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate against Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party.
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