In a rare coincidence, Merin Joseph and Nishanthini Rajarathinam, two women IPS officers from the Kerala cadre, have bagged the prestigious Chevening Scholarship to study master’s in the United Kingdom.
While Ms. Joseph will be pursuing Master of Public Policy (MPP) in the University of Oxford, Ms. Rajarathinam has opted for MSc Policing in University College, London. Both officers have been offered fully funded scholarships as part of the U.K. government’s international awards scheme aimed at developing global leaders.
Ms. Joseph, who is the District Police Chief of Kollam City, was in the headlines when she cracked a POCSO case and nabbed a rape accused from Riyad.
“ Perfect time”
“It has been a long dream from the time I was in college. But then I couldn’t pursue it as I got into the service early and the plan to do higher studies in the U.K. was put on the back burner. But now I feel is the perfect time in my career to take a short break,” says Ms.Joseph. She says she opted for MPP as the stream is relevant to her job.
Ms. Rajarathinam had been posted as the SP, Headquarters, Thiruvananthapuram, holding additional charge as State Coordinator, Nirbhaya Cell, and Chief Executive Officer, Gender Park. She is also the commandant of the first woman battalion of Kerala.
Incidentally, both the officers came to know about each other when their friend circles started discussing their feat.
“We found out after we got through, that too from another person,” she says.
Ms. Joseph and Ms. Rajarathinam , two popular officers from the Kerala cadre, will be now part of the ‘Living Bridge’ between the U.K. and India. Coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to denote the strong people-to- people connections between the U.K. and India, the term indicates ties cutting across a spate of sectors from education to defence, politics to culture and sports to literature.
