Empowering Communities: Suneeta Mukherjee's Journey

“Radiate boundless love towards the entire world”, by Lord Buddha, inspired Dr. Suneeta Mukherjee, who was an IAS officer and now a social worker, with an experience of more than 40 years. She said “I am 76 years of age and would like to contribute till the last day of my life. I would like to address as many children as possible so that they understand that violence against women is criminal and men and women should be treated equally.”

Introduction:

Dr. Suneeta Mukherjee, a retired IAS officer. She took voluntary retirement from IAS in 1994 and joined International Civil Services (ICS) where she worked as Head of UNFPA in Sri Lanka and Maldives (1994 – 2000), Bangladesh (2000 – 2006), and the Philippines (2006 – 2010). After retirement, she and her husband settled in Gurgaon and got into social services and together they helped whomever they could in the field of health and education. At the moment she is supporting 24 children in higher education. She is very compassionate and that’s what drew her to the social service field.

She started her career as a lecturer in Govt. College for Girls in Chandigarh and from there took the exam and joined IAS. She had a very challenging task as SDM Nurpur which was politically torn and she learned a lot there.  She was the first female Deputy Commissioner in Himachal Pradesh and was recognized for starting an accelerated Antyodaya program. She did very well as Managing Director of the State Electronics Development Corporation where she facilitated setting up a few electronic industries in the state and also ran in profit. She then specialized in health, worked as Deputy Director of PGI; Deputy Director of Administration AIIMS New Delhi, and Joint Secretary, of Health and Family Welfare Govt. of India. With a specialization in health and family welfare, she applied to UNFPA and got selected there and she joined the International Civil Service.

Challenges and Achievements:

Suneeta believes that the most significant achievement for her has been for women and youth. She went beyond the scope of her duties to set up a handicraft co-operative for women and self-help groups in Solan that did handicrafts and she would help in selling their products in Delhi.

• When asked to cover 20% of the eligible population for Antyodaya, she and her brilliant team covered 98%. Antyodaya was a program to cover the poorest of the poor in the village with development schemes and uplift them.  
• Set up Electronics industries for the first time in Himachal which was very difficult due to hilly terrain. 
• Set up Well Women Clinics which looked after the health of women in older age and addressedaddress issues such as menopause and malignancy in Sri Lanka. 
• Set up a very cordial and warm relationship with Mullahs in Bangladesh which helped to steer the gender program and was unheard of before.  
• After retirement, did social service in a civil hospital in Gurgaon where she and her husband even cooked and took food for the patients as there was no kitchen in the Civil hospital in Gurgaon. 
• She and her husband taught on an honorary basis in a Senior Secondary school in Chakkarpur, Gurgaon, and also helped in arranging water in the bathrooms and safe drinking water through a partner.

She received various awards and recognitions from a very young age, some are written below:

• Best all-around students – Year 1965
• Best NCC Cadet
• Won Swimming Championship in Punjab and went for Inter University competition 
• Influential Women LeadersLeader’s Award 2023
• Pride of Bharat Award 2023
• Indian Glory Award 2024
• Ek Nari 100 Pe Bhari – Lifetime Achievement Award 2024
• Women of Substance Award 2024
• International Icon Award 2024

Suneeta Mukherjee faced many challenges because she was a womanof a woman. In 1974 when she was SDM, many men would not accept women as their superior; hence she faced indifferent attitudes like the SHO would not salute her. He would take off his cap and look the other way. The BDO would not attend her meetings and politicians would not take her seriously. However before the end of one year, they all understood that she meant business. Even when she joined the UN wherejoined UN where most of her colleagues were European and also male, it took time for her to be accepted by the team. The next problem was balancing her Work life. Herlife her daughter was 2 years old when she was posted as Deputy Commissioner and though she had a retired nurse as her nanny and was well looked after, she was lonely. 

Personal Insights:

Suneeta Mukherjee is retired now with her children abroad, she lost her husband to COVID-19 and now she has all the time to devote to social causes. Her core values of Compassion, Righteousness, and Honesty and enjoy them and this  keeps her going in her life.

Impact and Vision:

As an IAS officer and a leader, she believes that her leadership style was tough though compassionate and she led by example. Her current initiatives include education for children, health, giving talks in Schools and Colleges, and Serving the poorest of the poor.

Her future goals include:

• She is a certified life coach and would like to help people with coaching. 
• She is educating 24 children in higher studies and would like to expand and help more children. 
• She would like to support the government in identifying the right career options for youth considering market needs for the next 20 years in India and abroad. 
• She would like to work with parliamentarians and hopes to influence them to look after the welfare of youth and women.
• She would like to expand her spiritual journey; she is into Kriya Karma Yoga and meditation. 

Conclusion:

She advises young boys men and girls women that it is very difficult to combine work and family life and be the best in both. However, one can strive towards that and achieve it if you have an accommodating partner. Suneeta’s daughter still feels that she should not have been a working woman but her daughter admires her achievements. Though she S, and though she tried to balance both, she never let her official work suffer and this sometimes affected family in spite of even though she had a very supportive partner. So be mindful of work-life balance without impacting your work,

Also “don’t forget to have fun and do what you enjoy doing. Look after your health and be mindful of exercising and eating healthy” she says.