Asha Sinha photographed in uniform; Source: Public Domain

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Asha Sinha was born on the 24th of March, 1956, in Kerala. She would be educated in Thiruvananthapuram, and would become a teacher in All Saints College over there. But her heart was not into teaching. Furthermore, she also cleared the General Insurance Corporation of India exams, but that was still not what her heart wanted.

She would establish her claim to fame when in 1982, she joined the Indian Police Service. This was, and still is, one of the most prestigious services to lend one’s career to. She served for 34 years, and in her career, she would set many records.

First, she would climb the ranks of the police hierarchy in Bihar - from being the Assistant Superintendent of Police at Patna, to the Superintendent of the CID in Bihar. She would also be posted to Maharashtra,  where she was involved with the Anti Corruption Bureau in the Greater Mumbai region.

She would then be transferred to the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited’s CISF detachment, becoming the first woman commandant in the Indian Paramilitary forces. This occurred in 1992, and it certainly took a long time in coming.

She would also become a group commandant for the Nava Sheva Port, and after that, she would transfer to Jharkhand. 

> Jharkhand had been in the throes of a heavy Naxalite insurgency at that time. Many police officials had been killed, and it did not look like the police were going to have a smooth time in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

She led the State Intelligence Wing, and her inputs made the elections smoother than before. Unit morale went up, and Jharkhand was able to organise its anti-insurgency efforts efficiently. Her service would earn her the President’s Medal for Meritorious Service in 2010, one of the highest police awards in the country.

Asha Sinha, the first woman to become a commandant of a paramilitary service (CISF), was born today in 1956. Her work would also be viable in conducting the 2009 Lok Sabha election voting in Jharkhand safely.