CHENNAI: When city-bred Sheela Rani Chunkath got her first posting as sub-collector in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, in 1978 she was not ready to counter the local politicians.
They stunned her by walking into her office without knocking the door. But, in 2010, as the chairperson and managing director of Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC), Chunkath is one of the few bureaucrats who enjoy a good rapport with politicians as well as people. Under her leadership, the organisation has always achieved and at times, gone beyond the set goals.
Early life
A resident of Chennai since Class 5, the outspoken officer had an adventurous stint during her college days. “I did my BA and MA in economics from Stella Maris College, Chennai.
We were the first batch of girls in the college to learn karate under karate Mani,” she says. Quiz competitions in different colleges, theatre and photography kept Chunkath on her toes.
“We staged a lot of performances in the Museum Theatre, Egmore,” she recollects.
Romancing feminism
“The works of Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Faludi and Germaine Greer certainly had an effect on me,” says Chunkath, who brought about a tremendous change in the female infanticide scene in Salem, Namakkal and Dharmapuri districts.
During her tenure as project director of Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Dharmapuri district witnessed a major decrease in the female infanticide rate. It went down from 3,000 cases per annum to nil. But, this alone does not make Chunkath a happy woman. “Dowry is still prevalent in many communities,” observes the officer. She considers Periyar a ‘super feminist’ for his famous quote, “Penngal kuzhandai petrudukkum iyanthiram alla (Women are not just child-bearing machines).” She hopes that the Lok Sabha will pass the Women’s Reservation Bill very soon.
Spreading light
Chunkath made a mark during her short tenure as the collector of Pudukottai district between 1990 and ’92. “In the two years, we made a big impact on Arivoli Iyakkam (Tamil Nadu government’s ‘Education for All’ programme) project. We were able to get more than 25,000 volunteers involved in the project,” says Chunkath, who was also responsible for transforming the lives of quarry and sex workers in Pudukottai. She included the sex workers into some government projects through which they could earn some money. This helped the sex workers to stay off the profession that they were forced into.
Seats of opportunity
“Civil service provides confidence and authority to bring about a change, especially when you are young,” says Chunkath, who was 24, when she cleared the UPSC exam in 1978. But, how was she able to communicate with rural people? “People are actually good and they want to work for you, provided you know how to recognise their contributions,” says Chunkath. No wonder she is a popular IAS officer among the masses.
She was the state home secretary when sandalwood smuggler Veerappan was killed by the special task force in 2004.
Learning experiences
“I am totally against privatisation of health services. Only the government can bring about a integrated growth,” says this former state health secretary. Chunkath was instrumental in introducing the system that monitors the performance of government doctors who are posted in the primary health centres in the rural areas. “Now, the health care model in the state is studied and followed by other states.” As a chairman of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, she wanted to ban the use of plastic that was more than 80 microns. “But the bill could not be passed due to some vested interests,” she says. “But again, these are things one learns in this service. You win some times and you lose some times. But, you keep trying,” she smiles.
Nurturing ambitions
As the head of TIIC, Chunkath has introduced ‘Grow the entrepreneur’ scheme that aims at identifying young entrepreneurs in the medium and small industries sector, whom TIIC will fund. “We have got more than 500 entrepreneurs including few from the narikurava community (gypsies),” says a happy Chunkath, who is aiming at including 10,000 entrepreneurs before the year end.
She also hopes to get more farmers into organic farming and popularise Ayurveda and other Indian medicine systems. “Ayurveda and yoga are very unique Indian medicinal systems. The government has to encourage these systems for the reason that they originated in India,” says the officer who regularly practices yoga n
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