Meet ex-JNU student Subashini, who is now India's first woman IPS officer to be put in charge of a Chief Minister's security

Meet Subashini Sankaran, the first woman IPS officer to take charge of the security of a Chief Minister. She is guarding Sarbananda Sonowa, the Chief Minister of Assam, India's largest state in northeastern India dealing with not only law and order problems and counter-insurgency, but also communal strife, smuggling, poaching and several such issues.

To be working for the CM of a difficult region is no mean feat. Moreover, ensuring the security of a state's CM is a job with zero tolerance for error. Sankaran is responsible for planning the routes of the CM's travel. She also coordinates with the teams that provide close proximity protection and briefs security personnel. It is a stressful job and her work day often extends to 18 hours. Over everything else, she is an Indian woman breaking stereotypes by leading from the front.

“It was a new thing for everybody, but people slowly adapted to being comfortable about having a lady police officer as the chief minister’s head of security,” Subashini told News18.

Suhasini's journey: From a sociology graduate to taking charge of a CM's security

Hailing from an educated middle-class family, she belongs to Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district. She, however, moved to Mumbai in the 1980s with her parents.

After doing her schooling in Mumbai and finishing her graduation in Sociology from St. Xavier’s College, she joined Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi to pursue her Masters and M. Phil. She wrote her dissertation on women and terrorism, focusing on the suicide bomber squads of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. It gave her an insight into the broader political and sociological situation in India and a nuanced understanding of law and order issues.

While in JNU, Subashini started preparing for the UPSC exams. In 2010, Subashini cracked the UPSC Mains examination with rank 243. She went to Hyderabad for her Police Academy training and was finally stationed in Assam. Here, she learnt the basics of Indian policing, handling the physical and mental demands that accompany being a law enforcement officer.

No other member of her family has ever worked for the police; her father was employed in the industrial safety department of a private company, her mother is a homemaker and her sister an entrepreneur in the United States.

Before her current appointment, she worked as an Assistant Superintendent of Police in Azara Police Station in Guwahati. Next, she was transferred to Biswanath District, followed by stints in Silchar and Tezpur as Additional Superintendent. While in Biswanath Chariali, Subashini and her team busted a rhino–poaching ring operating out of nearby Kaziranga.

She has an advice for police officers, something she learnt on the job - “Talk when necessary, take firm action when necessary. Lawfully, of course.”

(Image credit- News18)