India Shows Up Its Women’s Power in the UN

India’s Ruchira Kamboj will take charge of the UN’s Security Council on Thursday. She takes up the footsteps of the illustrious Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit who 69 years ago headed a major UN body.

In 1953, Pandit became the first woman President of the General Assembly. Kamboj is the first Indian woman to become the president of the Security Council.

Terming this rare feat as a mark of pride for Indian women, Kamboj tweeted, “To the girls out there, we all can make it.” She is also the first Indian female Permanent Representative of India to the UN. So, she has become a role model for Indian women.

At the Security Council, Kamboj chairs the high-profile Counter-Terrorism Committee. Earlier she was posted as the Ambassador to Bhutan and high commissioner in South Africa.

As an adept diplomat, she was India’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO in Paris, high commissioner in South Africa, and chief of protocol.

Kamboj is a 1987 batch Indian Foreign Service official.  At present in the 15-member Security Council, four women work with her. They are Lana Zaki Nuseibeh of the United Arab Emirates, Linda Thomas-Greenfield of the US, Barbara Woodward of the UK, and Mona Juul of Norway.

When it comes to the management of the external affairs of the country, Indian women have never lagged behind. Indira Gandhi held the External Affairs ministry from 1967 to 1969, and in 1984. BJP’s Sushma Swaraj was the External Affairs minister from 2014 to 2019.

Chokila Iyer, Nirupama Rao, and Sujatha Singh have served as India’s foreign secretaries in the past.