Meira Kumar first woman Speaker in world's largest democracy

New Delhi, Jun 3: Sixty four-year-old Meira Kumar is the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the world's largest democracy.

She is also the second Dalit to hold this position, the first being the late G M C Balayogi.

By opting for a woman as a Speaker for the first time, the Congress hopes to take the message of social and woman empowerment into the rival camp.

The Congress decision to have a woman Speaker is a clear signal that the 124-year-old party is bent on getting passed the long pending bill seeking to give 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state Assemblies.

The women's quota bill was one of the major electoral promises in the Congress manifesto for the 2009 general elections. The bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by the first UPA government towards the fag end of its term early this year.

The election of Ms Kumar was unanimous with the Opposition also supporting her candidature.

She was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2009 general elections from the Sasaram seat in Bihar, where the Congress could manage to get only two out of the 40 seats. She has earlier represented Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in the Lok Sabha.

Ms Kumar is soft-spoken but a firm pursuer of her social missions.

Daughter of late Deputy Prime Minister and prominent dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram and Indrani Devi, Meira Kumar gave up a career in the Indian Foreign Service which she had joined in 1973 on the request of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, to enter politics and claim her father's legacy.

She was born in Patna on March 31,1945. Her husband, Manjul Kumar is a Supreme Court lawyer and they have three children, Anshul, Swati and Devangna, all married.

Poet, painter, sportsperson and a social activist, Ms Kumar was educated at Indraprastha College and Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is a graduate in law and holds a Masters in English.

Ms Kumar successfully contested for the Lok Sabha seat from Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh in 1985. She was a member of the 11th and 12th Lok Sabha, re-elected with a record margin from her father's former constituency of Sasaram in Bihar.

She was inducted into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2004.

Ms Kumar has actively participated in a number of movements for social reforms and protection of human rights.

Besides being a Minister, she has served on various important posts in Parliament including as Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of External Affairs, General-Secretary, All India Congress Committee (AICC), Member, Congress Working Committee (CWC) and Public Accounts Committee.

Ms Kumar has also been closely asociated with a number of social and cultural organisations. She is President and Founder of the All India Samta Movement (also its founder). She has been on the Governing Body, Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 1987-92, and on the Central Advisory Board of Education, 1977-90 and 2004 onwards.

She has served on the National Commission on Population, and the National Integration Council.

She was Chairperson, National Drought Relief Committee of the Congress party during the century's worst drought in 1967. She had launched a Family Adoption Scheme under which drought-affected families were adopted by affluent families.

Ms Kumar has been committed to human rights and abolition of the caste system. She has visited a number of places where atrocities were committed against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Ms Kumar's hobbies include painting and writing poems some of which have been published. She was the editor of Pavan Prasad--a monthly magazine (1980-92).

UNI