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Smt. Sheila Dikshit was sworn-in as
Chief Minister for the second consecutive term of the Govt. of NCT of Delhi
on 15 th December, 2003. She is the second woman Chief Minister of Delhi.
She represents Gole Market Constituency in the Assembly.
Smt.Sheila
Dikshit brings to the administration vast experience in Administrative and
Parliamentary matters. She served as a Minister in the Union Government
during 1986 - 89, first as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs
and later as a Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office. During
1984 - 89 she represented Kannauj Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar
Pradesh. As a member of Parliament, she served on the Estimates Committee
of Lok Sabha. She also Chaired the Implementation Committee for
Commemoration of Forty Years of India's Independence and Jawaharlal Nehru
centenary. As President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, she led
her party to a sweeping victory in the Assembly elections in 1998.
Smt.
Sheila Dikshit was born on March 31, 1938. Holder of Master of Arts degree,
she received her education at Convent of Jesus and Mary School, New Delhi
and later in Miranda House, Delhi University. She was married into the
family of Shri Umashankar Dikshit, noted freedom fighter and a former
Governor and Union Cabinet Minister. Her late husband Shri Vinod Dikshit
was a widely respected member of the Indian Administrative Service.She has
two children, one son and one daughter.
Smt.
Sheila Dikshit has championed the cause of women at various fora and in
various capacities. She has also been a leading figure in the movement for
granting of equal rights to women. She represented India on the U.N.
Commission on Status of Women for five years (1984 - 89). In Uttar Pradesh,
she along with her 82 colleagues were jailed in August 1990 for 23 days by
the state government when she led a people's movement against the
atrocities being committed on women. Electrified by this, lakhs of citizens
all over UP joined the movement and coured arrest. Earlier, in the early
1970's, she was chairperson of the Young Women's Association and was
instrumental in the setting up two of most successful hostels for working
women in Delhi.
She
is also the Secretary of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. The trust has
come to play a leading role in promotion of international understanding. It
presents the Indira Gandhi Award for Peace, Disarmament and Development and
Organises conferences on issues of the global concern. Under his aegis an
Environmental Center has been setup at the trust.
She
has been especially intrested in the promotion of handicrafts and rural
artisans all over the country. Promotion of the folk theatre has been one
of her abiding commitments over the years . Between 1978 to 1984, in her
capacity as the executive secretary of the Garment Exporter's Association,
she played a leading role in taking garments exports to unprecedented
levels.
She
is strongly committed to Secularism and has from every platform fought
against the rise of communal forces. She practices the belief that if
democracy is to truly survive in India, the basic norms of correct behavior
and rectitude have to form an integral part of public life .
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