Chonira Belliappa Muthamma, the First women IFS ( India Foreign Service ) Officer passed away in Bangalore on Wednesday. She was 85.
Born at Virajpet in Coorg on Jan 24, 1929, she was the first women to appear for the Indian Civil services examination in 1948. She joined the Foreign Service in 1949.
She took the ministry of external affairs to court for discriminating against women in the service and not being promoted to the Foreign Secretary post.
Though the case was dismissed, the court noted that there was indeed discrimination against women in the service .
Looking back on her tenure in IFS, she wrote in a book;
Looking back, I cannot help but conclude that my tenure with the external affairs ministry was one long tussle
with the anti-women bias.
