Smita Sabharwal, one of the youngest IAS officers to have cracked the tough civil services exam in 2001, is in news after the Outlook magazine published a sexist article describing Smita as an ‘eye candy’.
What more, they even put a blatantly shameful cartoon to portray her.
Last night Smita did an exclusive interview with NDTV’s Barkha Dutt saying:
“I want Outlook to apologise to women across the country, this is an insult to women in general. It is a matter of professional pride. I have spent 14 long years in service. The write up hurt very badly. It made me think if they can do this to a bureaucrat, who is doing a serious job, possibly women across will be subjected to this sort of yellow journalism… and we must step up and put an end to it. I have worked as a figure of authority in districts and have never been treated like this.”
About the support that she is getting, she said: “I was really touched to see for every one pervert, there are lakhs of people out there who have a sense of how to view a woman.”
Her advice to working women: “Don’t let a few perverts demotivate us. We deserve better.”