As Deputy Commissioner (special), Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Nidhi Choudhari, IAS, is tasked with tackling encroachments.
Before becoming an IAS officer Ms. Choudhari, a mother of two, was with the Reserve Bank of India. She has also served as Palghar district CEO. Hailing from a small town [possible to find out which?] in Rajasthan, Ms. Choudhari says these are exciting and challenging times for women. “Even in a modern society like Mumbai, there are traces of patriarchy. I sat for my UPSC exams after having my first child. Now, after my second child, I still make my own choices. Modern women are expected to be supermoms, which is a problematic ideal,” she says.
Yet, there is a need to break this image. “During my maternity leave, if I felt I had something to do, I would tell my husband he needed to look after the baby. Women should not take all parental responsibilities. It is an injustice to the father. He also has the right to rear the child,” she elaborates.
Ms. Choudhari says 20 years back, people would have found it difficult to work under female bosses. “I have not found any particular difficulty, but if the government reverses the proportion of women to men in postings, most things which ail our bureaucracy will go away,” she feels. As for her experiences with public representatives, she says it has been more or less respectful. “Some of my projects have met with resistance in BMC assembly but that was not because I am a woman,” she emphasises.
As one of the few bureaucrats on Twitter, she acknowledges that women often get harassed in the most terrible ways. “My views on Twitter are strictly personal, but I have been trolled a lot. I engage with someone if I see there is scope for reasoning. Otherwise I don’t.”
Official responsibilities apart, Ms. Choudhari is also raising her two sons. “Casual, gender inappropriate remarks shape their minds. I want to raise my sons as individuals who respect everyone. Both do not have a surname. When they are old enough, they will decide what surname, if any, to take.”