Indian Women Shine at United Nations

By: WE Staff | Friday, 28 May 2021

Several Indian women have worked at the UN Secretariat, but none have held the highest-ranking position of Under-Secretary General. This is without a doubt a one-of-a-kind accomplishment for Indian women in the UN system.

Akanksha Arora is an Indo-Canadian auditor with the United Nations (UN) who has run for re-election to the post of UN Secretary General later this year. Even without the support of her own country, the fiery Arora is unlikely to advance in her bid for the top job at the UN.

But, with the appointment of Usha Rao Monari as the Associate Administrator of the UN Development Program in the rank of Under Secretary General, 2021 has been an exceptionally good year for Indian women at the UN. Several Indian women have worked at the UN Secretariat, but none have held the highest-ranking position of Under-Secretary General. This is without a doubt a one-of-a-kind accomplishment for Indian women in the UN system. Monari previously worked for the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Two other Indian women have taken on leadership roles at the United Nations in New York. Ligia Noronha is the Assistant Secretary General of the UN Environment Program in New York, and Preeti Sinha is the Head of the UN's Capital Development Fund, which deals with microfinance.

The role of Indian women was emblazoned on the UN stage when Hansa Mehta participated in the UN Conference on Human Rights in Paris in 1948 and ensured that these rights were gender neutral by amending the expression “all men are created equal” to “all human beings are created equal” in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. She later served as the vice chairman of the Human Rights Commission of the UN in 1950.

Following that, Vijay Lakshmi Pandit became the UN General Assembly's first female President (1953-54). This was a truly remarkable achievement in a male-dominated diplomatic world at the time, and India should be proud of it. But not many know that she also led an “unofficial delegation” from India in San Francisco in 1945, when the UN conference took place, which laid the foundations of the organisation.

It is a matter of pride that an Indian Foreign Service officer, Lakshmi Puri, became one of the first Deputy Executive Directors of UN Women, who was followed by Anita Bhatia, who had previously worked for IFC. Geeta Rao Gupta previously served as UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director.

In fact, most Indian women at the top of the multilateral system today have strong ties to Delhi. Soumya Swaminathan led the Indian Council of Medical Research, Ligia Noronha worked for TERI for a long time, and Preeti Sinha led the Yes Global Institute.