On September 16, a wedding in Chennai also became the venue for a unique reunion. Thirteen members of the first batch of women police constables in Tamil Nadu had their long-desired reunion, 40 years after their induction in 1977.
“The reunion was made possible by Vijaya Pushpam, the bride’s mother, who quit the police service to take up a Central government job. All of us wanted to meet each other for a very long time and the wedding became a venue for our reunion,” said Sathi Anusooya, one of the batchmates.
While Ms. Anusooya retired as Deputy Superintendent of Police in the CB-CID (Criminal Investigation Department of the Central Bureau of Investigation) in 2016, 11 others from the batch retired as Inspectors.
Ms. Pushpam, who continued studying after quitting the police service, was selected for the Central government’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
The 13 women were selected from 5,000 candidates at a recruitment drive held for the western districts in Coimbatore.
The recruitment was carried out by Panchapakesan, then Superintendent of Police (SP), Coimbatore. They joined the service in 1978, after a nine-month training programme in Chennai.
“All of us, except Ms. Pushpam and Bhuvaneswari, another batchmate, are settled in Coimbatore,” said Ms. Anusooya.
