World
India
The Centre approved the request.of Sujata Rout Karthikeyan, a 2000 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) for voluntary retirement.
The letter dated March 28 to Odisha Chief Secretary, the government said, “I am directed to refer to Government of Odisha forwarding therewith application dated March 13 of Karthikeyan, IAS seeking voluntary retirement under Rule 16(2A) of AIS(DCRB) Rules, 1958.”
“In this regard, it is to convey that Central Government has approved the request of Voluntary Retirement of Karthikeyan, from IAS with effect from March 13, 2025, in relaxation of three months’ mandatory notice period under Rule 16(2A) of AIS(DCRB) Rules, 1958. Further, Government of Odisha is requested to issue necessary ‘Notification’ in this regard,” the letter from the Department of Personnel Training read.
Karthikeyan, a Bachelors in political science from Lady Shri Ram College and Delhi university topper, also holds the degree of Masters in international politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University
Karthikeyan, who is also a gold medallist in the IAS Academy, during her stint served as Collector in Maoist district and also started the cycle scheme for high school students through Bank sponsorship.
In 2005 when road access to schools was challenging especially for young girls and there was sharp dropout of tribal girls after eighth standard, she decided to provide cycles to girl students through bank sponsorship.
The motto behind the cycle sponsorship programme was ‘mobility is empowerment’.
This simple intervention enabled girls to continue high school education while empowering them otherwise too.
This scheme was later taken up by the state government for all schools across Odisha.
Karthikeyan was also known as “football collector“ in Sundergarh due to her penchant for distributing footballs in far off villages bordering Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
As per some officials, who serbed with her, youth would welcome her as she got with her footballs and hockey equipment encouraging young boys and girls to take up sports and stay away from maoist activities or drugs.
She also actively encouraged promotion of hockey in the district and setting up hostels for female players and astro turf fields.
She beleived in sports and saw it as a way of life and as a mode of empowering the youth.
In 2006, Karthikeyan introduced egg in the MDM scheme in all government schools of Sundergarh, which was inaugurated by then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and later scaled up across the state.
Instead of increasing the quantity of dal or oil in MDM which were not very measurable an egg was added in the weekly meals of kids.
Her focus on providing proper meals to students resulted in enrolment going up with little siblings attending school on egg days.
She was also the first woman collector of Cuttack district and then joined as Director Social Welfare in state government.
The popular Mamta scheme was launched under her, under which a conditional cash transfer, maternity benefit scheme which was applicable universally.
This scheme’s success inspired the erstwhile IGMBS . Indira Gandhi maternity benefit scheme.
It recognised the nutritional and rest needs of pregnant women and young mothers. To ensure dignity of women and reduce paperwork and red tapism it followed a self declaration format for claiming benefits and was universal in nature. Even today Mamta is a popular scheme for young mothers in Odisha.
She also steered the ‘Mission Shakti’ initiative for many years, even the flagship initiative of Patnaik.
Under her leadership it grew to a robust movement of 70 lakh women . The credit linkage to women’s groups increased from 500 crore to 15000 crore in 7 years.
She was also instrumental in launch of the entrepreneurship among women, with zero percent interest loans upto 10 lakh. This scheme saw a surge in women’s enterprises across the state.
Another unique intervention taken up Karthikeyan was systematic tying up of government business to women’s groups.
The result was that more than one lakh groups were involved in government activities like electricity bill collection, road construction, procurement, nursery raising, managing public infrastructure, running Laxmi buses, managing Mission Shakti cafés and so on.
Their total turnover from government work alone was Rs 11,000 crore in five years.
The entire thrust of Mission Shakti was identity and empowerment . Women SHG members were routinely taken on exposure visits to Dubai and Singapore. To encourage marketing of SHG products Mission Shakti bazaars were set up across the state with an iconic boutique store in Bhubaneswar and tie up with e commerce platforms.
Bill Gates had also visited this store and appreciated the marketing of agricultural products to an urban consumer base .
As secretary Culture which she held for a brief period of five months, she was instrumental in hosting the first ever ‘World Odia language Conference’ in Bhubaneswar.
It was attended by language enthusiasts from across the world, Odia diaspora and thousands of college students and was a big success.
ALSO READ: Operation Brahma: India Launches To Support Earthquake In Mayanmar, 1st Indian Military Plane Lands With Aid
