Women IPS Officers – List of Women IPS Officers in India
By BYJU'S Exam Prep
Updated on: November 14th, 2023
Women IPS Officers have served the country with supreme dedication and hard work as men. Previously, women have not been a part of the IPS, or the former Indian Imperial Police, since its beginning. It was only in 1972 that Kiran Bedi, the only woman in a batch of 80 officers, became the first woman IPS officer. Being employed in the Indian Police Service is considered to be the most respectable job in India as these officials are responsible for safeguarding law and order across the country.
The most eminent female IPS officers have acquired their posts after facing all the hardships and crossing the obstacles. They have reached the peak and inspire other young woman candidates to dedicatedly apply for the IPS exam and qualify for it. Aspirants clearing IPS – All India Services provide supervision to the IB, National Disaster Response Force, SSB, State Disaster Response Fund, National Investigation Agency, CBI, Border Security Force, and other security departments of our democracy. Learn about the top Women IPS Officers who had a distinguishable and revolutionary role in the IPS.
Read: Woman IAS Officers
Table of content
Women IPS Officers
It is evident that the Women IPS Officers in India have evolved into the most audacious nationals that had the power to transform the rules and regulations of society for its betterment. In this post, we have categorized female IPS officers starting from Kiran Bedi, who was the first woman to become an IPS officer in 1972, to S Sushree who recently bagged the title of the youngest woman IPS officer in 2018.
List of Women IPS Officers in India
Explore the top female IPS officers that have created a difference in the nation over the past few years and become role models for many upcoming female IPS officers.
| S.no. | Famous Female IPS Officers Name | Year of Accomplishment |
| 1 | Kiran Bedi | 1972 |
| 2 | Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya | 1973 |
| 3 | Jija Madhavan Harisingh | 1975 |
| 4 | Vimal Mehra | 1978 |
| 5 | Meera Borwankar | 1981 |
| 6 | B Sandhya | 1988 |
| 7 | Sonia Narang | 2002 |
| 8 | Sanjukta Parashar | 2006 |
| 9 | Sangeeta Kalia | 2009 |
| 10 | Subhashini Sankaran | 2010 |
| 11 | Aparajita Rai | 2010 and 2011 |
| 12 | Isha Pant | 2011 |
| 13 | Merin Joseph | 2012 |
| 14 | Dr. Ruveda Salam | 2015 |
| 15 | Sushree | 2018 |
1. Kiran Bedi (First Woman IPS Officer in India)
Kiran Bedi is a retired IPS officer and a social activist. Recently, she acted as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 28 May 2016 to 16 February 2021. Kiran Bedi is the first woman IPS officer in India who joined Indian Police Service in 1972 and served for 35 years.
- She was honored with the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994.
- Kiran became the first woman in India appointed as a Police Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2003, in the Peacekeeping Operations Department.
- She gained worldwide fame as she did phenomenal work at Tihar Jail by presenting many contemporary reforms.
2. Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya
Bhattacharya became the first woman IPS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre and was also the second woman IPS officer in India after Kiran Bedi. She evolved as the first woman IPS officer to become the Director-General of Police of a state when she was nominated the DGP of Uttarakhand. She was in service for 33 years, during which she won several medals:
- 1989: President’s Medal for prolonged and praiseworthy services;
- 1997: President’s Medal for distinguished services;
- 2004: Rajiv Gandhi Award for exceptional all-round performance and as an extraordinary woman achiever.
3. Jija Madhavan Harisingh
The third on the list of women IPS officers is Jija Madhavan Harisingh who was the first woman IPS Officer from Karnataka. She performed her duties for 36 years and retired in 2011 as Director General of Police.
- She qualified for the UPSC exam and preferred Indian Police Service in 1975.
- Jija has multiple tags awarded to her, one of which is “The J Mag” on the women’s special cover story decorated with an exquisite picture of her.
- Jija is presently the President of the Institute of Directors, Bangalore Chapter and the Honorary President of The Art Mantram Foundation, a trust that encourages Indian art and is not-for-profit in nature.
4. Vimal Mehra
Vimal Mehra, a 1978 batch woman IPS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories (AGMUT). In 2012, she was in service in DG Tihar, where she made many modifications and raised vocational programs to instruct prisoners in employment-oriented skills, including foreign language courses for women convicts and undertrials.
- One of her most commendable achievements is establishing women’s helpline no. 1091 as the head of the Crime Against Women Cell and defense training programs for women.
- Vimal Mehra, first time in the history of the Delhi Police, got the crucial role of Special Commissioner Police.
- Vimal dealt with the regiment at the time of the Anti-Sikh riots for the first time in Delhi. There she introduced a training lecture on self-defense which was driven by the police.
5. Meera Borwankar
The first female IPS officer from the Maharashtra cadre is Meera Chadha Borwankar who joined the IPS in 1981. Presently, she is the Director-General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
- The film “Mardaani” was based on the life of Meera Borwankar.
- She is tough and popularly known as Iron Lady, and with her strong faith and logical thinking, she was able to solve the top cases like the Abu Salem extradition case, Jalgaon Sex Scandal, etc.
- Meera Borwankar has also detected the hanging of the 1993 Mumbai serial blast criminal Yakub Memon in 2015.
6. B Sandhya
B Sandhya joined the Indian Police Services in 1988 and is currently serving as the Additional Director General of Kerala Police. She was accountable for enforcing the Janamaithri Suraksha Project (the Community Policing Project) of Kerala which has been greatly praised. She also got involved in a lot of high-profile cases during her tenure.
7. Sonia Narang
Sonia Narang is yet another women IPS officer from the 2002 batch. She was born in Chandigarh and is the daughter of a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police. She has been a Gold medalist in Sociology from Punjab University.
- Narang came into the limelight when she slapped a BJP leader (Renukacharyaa) in 2006 during a rally between Congress and BJP party.
- Sonia had only one purpose, and that was to wear the Khaki.
8. Sanjukta Parashar
Sanjukta Parashar, of the 2006 batch, is the next courageous women IPS officer on the list. Because of her phenomenal achievements, she is referred to as the Iron Lady of Assam. She is the first to become the Assistant Commandant of Makum in 2008.
- During her 15 months in Assam, she brought down 16 Bodo militants, helped prevent the ethnic brutality between Bodo militants and illegal Bangladeshi militants, and captained a CRPF team with AK-47 in Sonitpur’s terror-invaded district.
- Sanjukta did graduation in Political Science from IP College and completed a master’s course in International Relations from JNU.
9. Sangeeta Kalia
Sangeeta Kalia became a famous woman IPS after passing the UPSC exam on the third attempt in 2009. She is the daughter of a retired carpenter in Fatehabad police, and she was also first posted as SP in Fatehabad police.
- While working as the Police Superintendent in Fatehabad, Haryana, Kalia earned a lot of attention in 2015, when she had a well-reported argument with the state’s health minister, Anil Vij.
- The minister asked her to get out, and when she denied it, she was moved to a separate district.
- Kalia got tremendous support after this incident for standing up to the abuse of politicians’ authority.
10. Subhashini Sankaran
Subhashini Sankaran cracked the UPSC Mains exam in 2010 with a rank of 243. She became the first woman IPS officer in India to be put in charge of chief minister’s protection (Assam’s CM Sarbananda Sonowal) in July 2016.
- She was born in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu and finished her education in Thane, Mumbai.
- Subhashini Sankaran broke a prominent rhinoceros poaching crew functioning at the nearby Kaziranga National Park, while she was posted in Assam.
11. Aparajita Rai
Aparajita Rai appeared two times in UPSC (2011 and 2012) and cracked the exam both times by securing the highest marks ever in Sikkim, after failing on her first attempt before 2011. She became an IPS officer at the age of 28 and holds the history of becoming the first woman IPS officer in Sikkim.
- Rai won many awards, including the West Bengal Government’s trophy, the 55th Batch of Senior Course Officers Trophy, and the Shri Umesh Chandra Trophy for Field Combat.
- She secured 358th rank in the UPSC examination and is currently posted in West Bengal’s Hollywood.
12. Isha Pant
Isha Pant became a famous IPS officer in 2011 and hails from Bhopal. She acquired 191st rank in Civil Services Exam and completed her training at SVPNPA (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy) in Hyderabad. She received the tag of best all-rounder women IPS probationer in 2012.
13. Merin Joseph
At the age of 25, Joseph evolved as the youngest woman IPS officer to qualify for the Kerala Cadre in 2012 by attaining the 188th rank in the UPSC exam. Born in 1990, she was trained at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad and instructed the Indian Delegates for the Y20 Summit.
- She was born on 20th April 1990 in Kerala, India.
- Merin Joseph took custody as the Commissioner of Kollam district in June 2019, and as the Kerala DCP, she confronted a 2-year-old child rape case which she solved successfully after arresting the accused from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
14. Dr. Ruveda Salam
Salam became the first female IPS officer from the valley of Kashmir. Before becoming an IPS officer, she pursued MBBS from the Government Medical College in Srinagar. Her first posting was in Chennai as the Assistant Police Commissioner.
- She re-appeared for the UPSC exam and this time, qualified for becoming an IAS officer in 2015.
- Post that, Dr. Ruveda Salam has been posted as the Assistant Commissioner Income Tax officer in Jammu.
15. S Sushree
S Sushree is regarded as the youngest woman IPS officer in India. She qualified for UPSC in 2018, at the age of 23. She is a native of Kollam in Kerala and took charge as DCP Traffic of Bhubaneswar – Cuttack recently in 2023.
- She secured 151st rank in the UPSC examination with the help of her father, who was a former Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.
- Sushree graduated in Communicative English from St. John’s College in Anchal.
- She aims to coordinate with officers and personnel of her branch and sketch out a system to improve the traffic condition of the Capital City.
