Women give way to men in WCD ministry

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Published on November 23 2009 ,Page 15
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SEX CHANGE Most senior bureaucrats in the women and child development ministry are men, this wasn't the case 5 months ago

Chetan Chauhan

chetan@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI:

The women and child development ministry has seen a change in the gender composition of its senior officers.
Men have replaced women in more than 80 per cent of the positions the latter held.

Of the top five officials in the ministry -- joint secretary and above -- four are men now, as against only one five months ago.

Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath said: "Both men and women are efficient and can deliver equally well."

The previous women and child development minister, Renuka Chowdhury, believed that women understood issues related to women and children better than men did.

Till June 2009 Anil Kumar, the then secretary, was the only male officer in the ministry.
People under him were women -- Additional Secretary Vijayalakshmi K. Gupta, and Joint Secretaries Lovleen Kackar, Kiran Chadda, Manjula Krishnan and Pradeep Bolina.

The change started with Lovleen Kackar completing her five-year central deputation and returning to her parent cadre, Madhya Pradesh.

Shreeranjan, a 1985 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre, who goes by one name, replaced her.

After her, Kiran Chadda, a central secretariat service officer, went on a long leave and was replaced by Sudhir Kumar, a Bihar cadre IAS officer of the 1982 batch.

Recently, Manjula Krishnan was promoted as additional secretary and posted in the rural development ministry as economic advisor.

No one has filled in for her in the women and child development ministry.

Bolina will retire by the end of this year.

"If her (Bolina's) replacement is also a male officer, the top rung of the ministry will be all men for the first time since it came into being in 2005," said a senior ministry official, not willing to be quoted as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Women officers in the ministry have taken a stand against the government. Deepa Jain Singh, as secretary, protested when the department of personnel and training (DoPT) wanted women officers to submit details of their menstrual cycle. After her protest, the department withdrew the order.

Kackar had criticised the Madhya Pradesh government for the malnutrition deaths in the state in 2008.

The women and child development ministry has seen a change in the gender composition of its senior officers.
Men have replaced women in more than 80 per cent of the positions the latter held.

Of the top five officials in the ministry -- joint secretary and above -- four are men now, as against only one five months ago.

Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath said: "Both men and women are efficient and can deliver equally well."

The previous women and child development minister, Renuka Chowdhury, believed that women understood issues related to women and children better than men did.

Till June 2009 Anil Kumar, the then secretary, was the only male officer in the ministry.
People under him were women -- Additional Secretary Vijayalakshmi K. Gupta, and Joint Secretaries Lovleen Kackar, Kiran Chadda, Manjula Krishnan and Pradeep Bolina.

The change started with Lovleen Kackar completing her five-year central deputation and returning to her parent cadre, Madhya Pradesh.

Shreeranjan, a 1985 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre, who goes by one name, replaced her.

After her, Kiran Chadda, a central secretariat service officer, went on a long leave and was replaced by Sudhir Kumar, a Bihar cadre IAS officer of the 1982 batch.

Recently, Manjula Krishnan was promoted as additional secretary and posted in the rural development ministry as economic advisor.

No one has filled in for her in the women and child development ministry.

Bolina will retire by the end of this year.

"If her (Bolina's) replacement is also a male officer, the top rung of the ministry will be all men for the first time since it came into being in 2005," said a senior ministry official, not willing to be quoted as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Women officers in the ministry have taken a stand against the government. Deepa Jain Singh, as secretary, protested when the department of personnel and training (DoPT) wanted women officers to submit details of their menstrual cycle. After her protest, the department withdrew the order.

Kackar had criticised the Madhya Pradesh government for the malnutrition deaths in the state in 2008.


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