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.
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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.
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“All of us, except Ms. Pushpam and Bhuvaneswari, another batchmate, are settled in Coimbatore,” said Ms. Anusooya.