On Monday, Violet Baruah of the Indian Police Services (IPS) became the first woman in Assam Police to be promoted to the rank of Inspector General.
With effect from January 1, 2022, the Assam government's Home Department promoted Baruah, who earned the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service earlier this year, to the position of Inspector General of Police.
It further said, “the Assam Police’s senior most woman IPS officer, who is currently posted as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (BTAD) in Kokrajhar district, will be in the ‘Super Time Scale-II of IPS’ of pay matrix”.
Baruah expressed her delight at the development, saying she has always embraced whatever challenge that has come her way on the job.
She stated, “I have never said no to any posting or task in my career. Rejecting a job has never been my style of functioning. That is why I was out of Guwahati (where state police headquarters is situated) for most of the period of my service.”
In 2012, the senior cop was also awarded the President's Medal for Meritorious Service.
Baruah, who joined the police force in 1992 as an Assam Police Services officer before being appointed to the IPS in 2004, believes that female empowerment is taking place worldwide, but that "gender mainstreaming" is what is needed now.
She underlined, “it requires personal initiative also. I personally opted for a field job and I did not face any barrier in that. Nowadays many women have come forward to join the police, but I feel more should come.”
In addition to working in the Assam Police's CID wing, the 59-year-old official served as superintendent of police in four districts: Morigaon,Barpeta, Cachar, and Goalpara.
According to the official notification, eight other DIGs of the state police were promoted to the rank of IG alongside Baruah.
Anand Prakash Tiwari, Deboraj Upadhaya, Diganta Barah, Mridulananda Sarma, Lachit Barua, Nitul Gogoi, Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan, and Dilip Kumar Dey are among those named, according to the report.
