THE OFFICER WHO CHOSE PEOPLE FIRST
IPS Officer · Superintendent of Police, Nagaland · 2016 Batch
“The virtue of keeping society always in order, more peaceful, and progressive made me choose the law enforcement career.”
— Dr. Pritpal Kaur Batra, IPS
Gold Medalist Who Chose a Badge Over a Clinic
Dr. Pritpal Kaur Batra is not the kind of person who takes the expected path. A native of Haryana, she earned a BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) degree with a gold medal, a distinction that would have secured her a comfortable career in dentistry. She was working as a dentist in Hyderabad when she made a decision that would change not just her own life, but the lives of thousands: she left the clinic, cracked the Civil Services Examination 2015 (scoring 906 marks — 760 in the written exam and 146 in the personality test), and joined the Indian Police Service as a 2016-batch officer of the Nagaland cadre.
Today, Dr. Kaur serves as Superintendent of Police (SP) in Phek district, an Indo-Myanmar border district of Nagaland, and the world has taken notice. In 2024, she became the only Indian officer selected for the prestigious IACP 40 Under 40 award by the US-based International Association of Chiefs of Police, one of the most respected police leadership honours in the world.
The Ground Reality: Policing at the Edge of the Map
When Dr. Kaur first arrived in Tuensang in 2018 as a Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), she stepped into one of India’s most remote and under-resourced regions. Tuensang, she noted, sits on “the easternmost fringes of Nagaland… quite segregated from the rest of the state because of the hilly terrain.” The proximity to the porous international border with Myanmar meant drug addiction was rampant. HIV-AIDS prevalence was high. Infrastructure was thin. And formal policing, as former DGP of Nagaland Rupin Sharma has noted, was “very rudimentary” because Naga communities traditionally resolved conflicts through their own mechanisms, keeping people away from courts and police stations.
She was, by her own admission, an outsider. A Punjabi Sikh woman from Haryana, posted in a tribal Naga district with its own languages, customs, and deep distrust of formal authority. The odds, professionally and culturally, were not trivial.
“Aside from the sheer beauty of the place, what touched me most was how genuine and kind people were to me when I arrived there in 2018. Despite my being an outsider, they made me feel at home. That’s what inspired me to go above and beyond the call of duty.”
— Dr. Pritpal Kaur Batra, to The Better India
Pritpal Kaur’s Achievements: Fighting Drugs with Education, Empathy, and Entrepreneurship
Rather than treating addiction purely as a law-and-order problem, Dr. Kaur built a three-pronged response: rehabilitation, education, and livelihood.
On rehabilitation:
She met with over 100 drug addicts undergoing treatment, counselled them personally, and connected them to livelihood-generating programmes including organic farming. Her work included facilitating Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) for those in recovery and helping them acquire vocational skills. “We visit villages and teach locals how to do farming,” she told The New Indian Express.
On education:
Recognising that unemployment and lack of opportunity were fuelling addiction, she launched free coaching classes for UPSC, NPSC, SSC, CAPF, and bank exams, held every morning from 6 AM to 10 AM, before her own duty hours began, so students could still attend their work or classes. She bought textbooks from Hyderabad and Dimapur with her own salary and distributed them free of cost. A class that started with 9 students grew to over 50. Seven students from her Tuensang initiative went on to clear the Nagaland Public Service Commission preliminary exam.
On entrepreneurship:
Through her flagship initiative Fighting Drugs with Education and Livelihood, Dr. Pritpal Kaur introduced skill training so that recovering addicts and unemployed youth could build careers. Another initiative, Not Guns but Machines, taught young people to build electric bicycles, dryers, and other low-cost machines, giving their hands something constructive to do. “Whatever they want to learn, we make it available,” she shared.
On women’s health:
During an awareness camp, Dr. Pritpal Kaur discovered that most women in Noklak had never heard of sanitary pads or menstrual hygiene. She approached the local Weaving Women Cooperative Society, which until then only made traditional clothes, and proposed they start stitching sanitary pads. After coordinating with the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) to procure machines from Maharashtra, the women trained online (despite poor network connectivity during the COVID pandemic) and began manufacturing pads. Nine villages are now involved. Pads are sold at ₹5 apiece and given free to those who cannot afford them. The result: a significant decline in uterus infections in the district, and a new source of income and confidence for women.
On border peace:
As the first-ever SP of the newly created Noklak district, Dr. Pritpal Kaur used negotiation skills to defuse border clashes and resolve longstanding land disputes in an area that shares an international boundary with Myanmar and carries the sensitivities that come with it.
She has also formed Self Help Groups (SHGs), promoted environmental conservation and biodiversity, run community drug squads with random checks, and campaigned against the use of chewing tobacco and paan, which cause oral cancer. And she continues to provide dental treatment, using her original medical training, to those who need it in districts with little healthcare access.
“Many of these students come from remote border areas and cannot afford expensive coaching. That’s why we’ve formed a team that dedicates time to teach them for free.”
— Dr. Pritpal Kaur Batra
Recognization: Awards That Speak for Themselves
IACP President Wade Carpenter wrote personally to Dr. Kaur: “You are part of an incredibly talented, accomplished, and dedicated group of individuals who demonstrate leadership and exemplify a deep commitment to the profession.”
Her full list of honours:
- 2024: IACP 40 Under 40 Award (Only Indian recipient in 2024)
- 2024: Global Women Leader Award, World Women Leadership Congress
- 2023: International Inspiration Women Award
- 2023: Skoch Gold Award
- 2023: Women Power India Award
- DGP Disc Award: Nagaland Police
Perhaps the most meaningful recognition of all, however, came not as a trophy but as a name. During her years working with tribal communities in Nagaland, Dr Kaur was granted a tribal name by the local people, one of the rarest and most personal forms of acceptance a community can offer. In her profile, Dr. Kaur attributes her enthusiasm for education and service to her mother, who believed in an outsider.
As the IACP noted indeed, education is not just for making money but for teaching and helping others. She carries this philosophy with her today.”
The Challenges: What Nobody Writes About (But Should)
None of what Dr. Kaur has built came without friction. Consider the terrain alone: Noklak, which she describes as “perhaps the remotest district in the country,” lacks infrastructure. Internet connectivity is poor. Supply chains are unreliable. Getting sanitary pad machines from Maharashtra to Noklak required the police department to transport and install them, and when the NIF trainers couldn’t travel due to COVID-19 lockdowns, women learned to operate the machinery over shaky video calls.
There is also the challenge of cultural trust. Dr. Kaur was an outsider, not just geographically, but linguistically and culturally. Naga communities have historically kept formal policing at arm’s length. Building genuine rapport with tribal councils, student unions, churches, and civil society groups took time, consistency, and a willingness to show up not as an authority figure but as a neighbour. Rupin Sharma, the former DGP of Nagaland, has acknowledged this directly, noting that effective policing in the region “has to be buttressed with a strong dose of empathy and ‘connect’ with the locals.”
She also navigated the personal cost of service. She spent her own salary on textbooks for students. She donated one month’s salary to KMH, a mothers’ organisation, for stitching masks, face shields, and PPEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. She woke before dawn to teach coaching classes before her official workday began. She personally counselled recovering drug addicts and cared for orphaned children born with HIV/AIDS.
And then there is the deeper, quieter challenge: being a woman in a uniform in a patriarchal institution, in a region where women have traditionally occupied circumscribed roles. That Dr. Kaur simultaneously broke ground on menstrual hygiene, a topic so taboo that most women in Noklak had never been told about sanitary pads, while doing it as a police officer in a tribal belt, says something about how many walls she was pushing against at once.
None of this is mentioned in her award citations. But it is the texture of her work.
“Nagas are self-sufficient tribes and very talented in all fields. I am just helping them to polish their own talent. They are so rich in culture and traditions. We just admire them.” — Dr. Pritpal Kaur Batra
For Every Woman READING This, She Didn’t Wait for Permission
Dr. Pritpal Kaur Batra was already a gold medalist in dentistry when she chose to start over. She walked away from one accomplished career to build another, in a field, a geography, and a social context that made everything harder. She didn’t do it because the path was clear. She did it because she had a conviction about what kind of society she wanted to help create.
Whatever your field, medicine, law, business, the arts, or public service, her story carries a simple message: your first chapter doesn’t define your whole story. Obstacles are the texture of meaningful work, not signs you’re on the wrong path. And empathy, when paired with determination, is not a soft skill. It is, as Dr. Kaur has proven, the most powerful tool you can carry.
Need more doses of inspiration? Read these:
References
1. The Better India (Primary Profile, October 9, 2020) “Free UPSC Coaching to Treating Addicts: Nagaland IPS Goes Above Duty to Save Lives” https://thebetterindia.com/239559/ips-hero-free-upsc-coaching-nagaland-pritpal-kaur-batra-tuensang-noklak-district-drugs-india-nor41/ (Source of direct quotes about Tuensang, her outsider experience, and coaching initiative)
2. Indian Masterminds (October 7, 2024) “Pritpal Kaur, Nagaland IPS Officer, Honored with Prestigious 2024 IACP ’40 Under 40′ Award” https://indianmasterminds.com/news/ips-news/pritpal-kaur-nagaland-ips-officer-honored-with-prestigious-2024-iacp-40-under-40-award-96931/ (Source for IACP award, career background, and anti-drug work)
3. Indian Masterminds (September 28, 2022) “Nagaland: IPS Officer Takes Strong Measures to Break Menstruation Taboo” https://indianmasterminds.com/features/change-makers/nagaland-ips-officer-takes-strong-measures-to-break-menstruation-taboo/ (Source for sanitary pad initiative, Weaving Women Cooperative Society, and HIV/uterus infection context)
4. Nagaland Tribune (October 6, 2024) “SP Phek Dr. Pritpal Kaur receives IACP 40 Under 40 Award” https://nagalandtribune.in/sp-phek-dr-pritpal-kaur-receives-iacp-40-under-40-award/ (Source for full awards list, tribal name honour, and IACP profile details)
5. Nagaland Tribune — Exclusive Interview (November 19, 2022) “Exclusive Interview: Dr Pritpal Kaur reflects on her time as SP Noklak” https://nagalandtribune.in/exclusive-interview-dr-pritpal-kaur-reflects-on-her-time-as-sp-noklak/ (Source for infrastructure challenges, electric bicycle initiative, border issues, and quote on sanitary pad making)
6. Whispers in the Corridors (July 5, 2025) “Award-Winning IPS Officer Dr Pritpal Kaur bringing change to Nagaland’s Borders” https://whispersinthecorridors.com/detail/138402 (Source for coaching class timings 6:30–10:30 AM, drug squad, entrepreneurship training, and direct quote on free coaching)
7. Yes Punjab News (October 8, 2024) “Indian IPS Officer Pritpal Kaur to Receive International IACP Award in Boston” https://yespunjab.com/indian-ips-officer-pritpal-kaur-to-receive-international-iacp-award-in-boston/ (Source for IACP President Wade Carpenter’s letter quote and Boston conference details)
8. Mokokchung Times (October 7, 2024) “Nagaland IPS Officer Pritpal Kaur is Only Indian Among Global Top Cops Under 40” https://mokokchungtimes.com/nagaland-ips-officer-pritpal-kaur-is-only-indian-among-global-top-cops-under-40/ (Source for tribal name “Themshao Lam” — meaning “protector grandmother” — and IACP quote)
9. India.com / Jagranjosh (December 4, 2024) “Meet Woman Who Quit as Dentist to Crack UPSC Exam” https://www.india.com/education/meet-woman-who-quit-as-dentist-to-crack-upsc-exam-became-ips-officer-only-indian-in-global-list-of-top-she-is-pritpal-kaur-7440427/ (Source for UPSC exam scores: 760 written + 146 personality test = 906 total)
10. DNA India (September 7, 2021) “Meet IPS Officer Pritpal Kaur, Who Quit Her Job as a Dentist to Clear UPSC Exam” https://www.dnaindia.com/education/report-meet-ips-officer-pritpal-kaur-who-quit-her-job-as-a-dentist-to-clear-upsc-exam-ias-success-story-2909922 (Source for converting SP office conference hall into classroom, 7 students clearing NPSC prelims, New Indian Express quote on Noklak)
11. RT (Russia Today) India (November 20, 2023) “‘Tribal’ Supercop: This Policewoman Goes the Extra Mile to Fight Militants and Drug Mafia” https://www.rt.com/india/587651-policewoman-fight-militants-drug-mafia/ (Source for NIF collaboration, Weaving Women Cooperative Society chair K. Newkhai’s quote, and Thumong the innovator)
12. IANS / Morung Express (October 6–7, 2024) “Nagaland IPS Officer Among Global ’40 Under 40′ Awardees” https://morungexpress.com/nagaland-ips-officer-among-global-40-under-40-awardees (Corroborating source for IACP award and six-country pool)
13. Government of Nagaland — District Noklak Official Website “Dr. Pritpal Kaur IPS — District Noklak Profile” https://noklak.nic.in/whoswho/dr-pritpal-kaur-ips/ (Official government source confirming her posting as SP Noklak)