India’s first woman career diplomat Chonira B Muthamma died on Wednesday

India’s first woman career diplomat Chonira B Muthamma died on Wednesday

India’s first woman career diplomat Chonira B Muthamma died in the early hours of Wednesday in a city hospital. She was 85.

Muthamma was born at Virajpet in Kodagu district in 1924, in a modest Coorg home and her father was a DFO. Muthamma completed her schooling at St Joseph’s Girls School in Madikeri and later graduated from the Women’s Christian College with a triple gold medal. She did her post-graduation in English literature from Presidency College in Chennai, again with a distinction.

In 1949, she wrote the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination and became the first woman to enter the civil services.

She opted for the foreign service. In 1970, Muthamma was posted to Hungary as the first woman Ambassador of India and was later Ambassador in Netherlands and Ghana. Her last posting was in The Hague. Earlier, she had taken the government of India to Supreme Court over the issue of discrimination in promotion and Justice V R Krishna Iyer had delivered a scathing judgement against the government and Muthamma was made an Ambassador.

Muthamma retired from the IFS in 1982 after 32 years of service.

She was later nominated as the Indian member of the Independent Palme Commission on defence and security issues, which was primarily concerned with nuclear disarmament, set up by Olaf Palmer of Sweden.

Muthamma was a prolific writer and authored several books which included ‘The essential Kodava Cookbook’ and ‘Slain by the system.’

Courtesy:- Express Buzz