No territory is foreign to these women

“That’s a lovely colour you are wearing. Through the winter you were always in black.”
“Actually the president herself asked me why I am always in black. It was not by choice. My boxes hadn’t arrived, so I had to make do with the few saris I carried with me… Now my luggage has finally come.”
“Your collection of shawls are beautiful…”
“But I have put them away now. Its too hot for shawls… will have to wait till winter.”

This is not the chatter of bored housewives at some ladies do, but the chit-chat of two high-powered ladies from the foreign ministry at a reception last week.

These women drive India’s foreign policy, but despite their tight schedules and responsibilities of strategising in backrooms during international conferences, the normal feminine touches are very much there.

Yes, women in the Indian Foreign Service never had it so good. There are 126 women in a service of just over 600 career diplomats. It’s not just the numbers. Many of them are now handling some of the most challenging assignments which their male colleagues would give an eye or a tooth for.

Not only does Nirupama Rao head the service, but assisting her in South Block are secretary (east) Vijaya Latha Reddy and economic relations secretary Parbati Sen Vyas.

India’s ambassador to the US is Meera Shankar, another high-profile diplomat. Washington is one of the most important diplomatic assignments. Beijing, Moscow and Islamabad are the other ones in that category. Before taking over as foreign secretary, Rao was India’s ambassador to China.

Things have come a long way since the pioneers — C Mutthama and Rukmini Menon — were in the service. They had to contend with much male chauvinism but Mutthama is known to have been a tough woman and could give a tongue lashing to many a male colleague.

Till a decade ago, women were handled with kid gloves and given “soft postings”. Kathmandu and Colombo were the “hardship postings” they got. Now, we have women serving all over the world.

Former ambassador Veena Sikri recalled how she had to take permission from her superiors to get married. No such rule existed for her male counterparts and the feisty Sikri was much annoyed. Things are very different today. Nengcha Lhouvum served in the embassy in Lebanon. She not only supervised the evacuation of Indians working in that country during a short war with Israel, but also helped Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis and other South Asians.

Her effort was much appreciated by Colombo and Dhaka. Lhouvum is now India’s ambassador to Serbia.

Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa is India’s first woman ambassador to Qatar. Ruchi Ghanashyam is India’s high commissioner to Ghana while Manimekalai Murugesan is one of the two women ambassadors posted in Libya.

She had earlier served in Sudan — considered to be a hardship posting even for men. Our envoy to the Ivory Coast is Shamya Jain. Sujatha Singh, the ambassador to Australia, is currently dealing with the repeated attacks on Indian students in that country.

Twenty-four of the 84 IFS officers recruited between 2005 and 2008 were women — roughly 29% of the intake. In 2008, nine of the 25 IFS officers recruited were women. That’s 32%. The numbers are expected to increase each year. But despite the enormous strides, there are allegations now and then of chauvinism.

A few years ago, Sikri stormed out of the service and put in her papers when her junior by several batches, Shivshankar Menon, was made the foreign secretary. Her contention was that as she had an excellent record and the authorities refused to inform her why she was overlooked. The only conclusion she could draw was: she had been sidelined because she was a woman.

“I still stand by my view as they have not yet given me a single reason why I was overlooked,” Sikri said. Her colleague G Parthasarthy said she was an excellent officer and did not pull her punches. If asked to give an opinion, she would do so professionally and not bother what the government of the day wanted to hear. Such honesty also go against women like Sikri, he said.

But many of those serving today say there is no discrimination. “In fact, we are welcomed with open arms, because our male colleagues believe that we work harder and are capable of dealing with sensitive issues better than them. Maybe it has to do with feminine instincts,” a woman officer, who did not wish to be identified, said.