Santha Sheela Nair

Former IAS officer, Santha Sheela Nair is from the batch of 1973. Posted as the first woman district collector of Trichy, and retired as a secretary to the Govt. of India, her work speaks volumes from near to 50 decades of her service to the country. She was also called after retirement to serve as a Vice Chairman of State planning commission, and to serve in the Chief Minister's office. 

Most of the trees still stand tall and as a testimony to her work of planting 1cr trees in Trichy and organising a large tree planting drive as the Commissioner of Chennai corporation. During the international year of the disabled she was the forerunner to the pulse polio campaign in TamilNadu, and for many other programs all over the district. She helped around 2Lakh children get their polio drops and thousands of polio affected children get their Calipers, and was awarded for her selfless services to the specially challenged people. She was also the founder of Trichy Spastic society which caters to 300 children affected with Cerebral Palsy.

Posted as a special officer during the state's 2004 Tsunami emergency in Nagapatinam, she put her best foot forward in shifting a large number of families to temporary shelters and restoration and rehabilitation of the place, including disposal of over 10,000 deceased. While serving as a Secretary of Municipal Administration, she also took a stand for sustainability which showcases her work in implementing rain water harvesting in Tamilnadu. It was first state in the country to make it compulsory and enacted a legislation to make it as a legal requirement in building rules. This made a big difference in the water management in the State of TamilNadu.

These volumes of work inspired us to strike up a conversation with Santha Sheela Nair, Former IAS Officer on the theme Matriarchy.