On Wednesday, July 7, Kerala’s top bureaucrats underwent a major shuffle, with over 30 IAS officers getting new posts. In the process, four districts got new female Collectors, which means that now, eight out of 14 districts in the state have women Collectors. TNM takes a look at these women and their careers as civil servants.
Divya S Iyer: Previously the Director of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Kerala, Divya S Iyer is now the Pathanamthitta District Collector. She replaced Dr Narasimhugari TL Reddy, who was appointed as the Collector of Kozhikode.
Sheeba George: The new Collector of Idukki district has had a long career in working for women’s issues, and has held various posts such as the Chief Executive Officer of the Gender Park in Thiruvananthapuram, and the state Coordinator of the Nirbhaya Cell. She was also the state Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities and was part of the Social Justice Department. She replaced H Dinesan as the Idukki Collector.
Dr PK Jayasree: After working as Deputy Collector of Kasargod in 2007 and holding the same post in Thrissur in 2012, Dr PK Jayasree is now the top bureaucrat in Kottayam. She, along with Sheeba George, H Dinesan and six others, were elevated to the rank of IAS in 2016 after being Deputy Collectors. Dr Jayasree replaced Anjana M as the Kottayam District Collector.
Haritha V Kumar: The new Thrissur District Collector studied engineering, and secured a top rank in the IAS exams in 2012. S Shanas, whom she replaced, has been posted as Mission Director of (MGNREGS).
Bhandari Swagat Ranveerchand: The northernmost district of Kasaragod gets a woman Collector as well. Bhandari Swagat held the post of Director of Industries and Commerce Department. She is a 2010 batch IAS officer who secured the 66th rank in the civil service examination. She replaced D Sajith Babu as the Kasaragod District Collector.
Adeela Abdulla: Prior to her appointment as the first woman Collector of Wayanad district in 2021, Adeela Abdulla was the District Collector of Alappuzha from June to November 2019. She was one among the 12 district collectors shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration under the category 'Inclusive development through credit flow to the priority sector’, for which she was one of the five shortlisted from south India. She worked as a doctor prior to joining the Civil Services.
Read TNM's earlier interview with Adeela: ‘Quarantine is the key’: Wayanad Collector on how the district is tackling COVID-19
Dr Navjot Khosa: The 2012-batch IAS officer took charge as the Thiruvananthapuram District Collector in 2020, and retains her post here. She assumed the post as the COVID-19 pandemic was intensifying in India, and she told the media that she would focus on fighting the pandemic as well as other health issues in the district. This is not surprising, as she is a BDS graduate from Amritsar.
Mrunmai Joshi: Mrunmai Joshi, Collector of Palakkad, has been staff officer to Chief Secretary since June 2020 and executive director of KRWSA (Jalanidhi) before that. She did her Master of Public Policy at Oxford University. She has worked as a freelance journalist during her under graduation before clearing civil service exams.
Recently, Tamil Nadu also reshuffled the top bureaucrats in the state, as a result of which 11 districts have women Collectors. This is the one of the highest representations of women in the Collector post in the state.