Rasheda Hussain was the first Muslim woman from Delhi to join the civil services in India. She had a very successful career, retiring as the Director-General of the National Academy of Customs and Central Excise. She came from a prominent Muslim family in Old Delhi that encouraged education for both men and women. Throughout her career, she focused on treating everyone, regardless of gender, with respect and humility. She strived to be a role model for younger officers and help them develop soft skills to have successful careers while maintaining a work-life balance.

1. FIRST STIRRINGS
rasheda hussain
HER name, Rasheda Hussain,
itself is loaded with meaning.
Rasheda is derived from
Rashid—one of the 99 names of Allah
meaning “The Guide” or “one who
takes to the right path”—and Hussain
was the son of Ali and the grandson
of the Prophet Muhammad. “God is
inside me… not something external—
that I have to be afraid of. I am
always trying to evolve as a better
person. That is my religion. Religion
is something that makes you strong,”
she says.
Her brother, Shahabuddin Yaqoob
Quraishi, was the first Muslim IAS
officer from Old Delhi and went
on to be India’s Chief Election
Commissioner. Seven years later,
this alumnus of Lady Sri Ram College
became the first Muslim lady in the
civil services from Delhi and went on
to retire as the Director-General of the
National Academy of Customs and
Central Excise (NACEN).
Three years later, she married
Siraj Hussain, a 1979-batch UP cadre
IAS officer and currently Secretary,
Ministry of Food Processing. After a
formal introduction at the Academy’s
library in Mussoorie, they spoke to
their respective parents who agreed
but for a slight hitch—Siraj was
younger to her. “The Prophet himself
was 25 years old and his first wife was
40. There is no harm if you repeat
what the Prophet himself did,” he said
and she agreed. His wit won him the
bride. Today, the couple has two chil-dren—
their son is pursuing a PhD in
computer science in the US and their
daughter is an HR professional who is
married and lives in Singapore.
She has had the best of both worlds.
She studied in an Urdu-medium
school and topped in Class XI, which
in those days enjoyed almost the same
status as Class XII at present. Those
days, most girls even from educated
THE UNUSUAL
BUREAUCRAT
Humble and philosophical,
Rasheda Hussain is a
motivating figure for many
IRS officers
42 gfiles inside the government
vol. 8, issue 6 | September 2014
www.gfilesindia.com families used to study in government-run
Urdu-medium schools and very
few girls could go to English-medium
schools. Later, she went on to do her
MBA from the University of Hull, UK,
which makes her a perfect blend of
tradition and modernity.
Soft-spoken, modest, humble and
philosophical—she is anything but a
stereotypical bureaucrat. She always
asked her subordinates to sit before
talking to them. “I wanted my juniors
to respect me but not be scared of
me,” she says.
“Speaking softly does not mean
being weak. If you get angry and start
shouting, would the other person hear
you better? No, on the contrary, when
you speak softly the other person lis-tens
closely. It is like rainfall—when it
rains hard, the rain water strikes the
ground and gets deflected. Whereas,
when the rain falls gently, the drops
sink into the ground. I have been try-ing
to practise this. So what if people
find me humble or sisterly?” she adds
with a smile.
Her passion in life was to pass on
the goodwill that she received from
her seniors to her juniors. Many
years ago, when she was expecting,
her Commissioner, Lajja Ram, in
Meerut called her to his office, gave
her a divisional responsibility (Asst
Commissioner) and told her that
she could come and go anytime to
look after the child as long as the dak
(post) in office was promptly attended

2. her father and brother went to St.
Stephens, which was a co-educational
college even at that time. The family
owned the only radio and the only
telephone in the area. Her father was
a versatile personality, well-versed in
English, Urdu, Persian, Arabic and
German. He used to teach English and
German and translate from Persian
to English and English to Persian,
as well as present programmes for
the External Services division of All
India Radio and take part in religious
discourses. Apart from that, he was
also the founder of the Delhi Football
Association and President of the
Swimming Club of Delhi. As per tra-dition,
every year for the Nizamuddin
Baoli swimming festival people used
to play the naphiri (a musical instru-ment)
while marching in a procession
to invite him as the President. “I was
inspired by my father–who had so
many qualities–which all my brothers
and sisters put together don’t have,”
she says.
EVEN in those days, women were
allowed to discuss politics or
listen to news over the radio in
English followed by free and frank
discussions in their home. Girls were
encouraged to study and provided
equal opportunities. “We had total
freedom—but we also knew that free-dom
is not to be misused. Our father
would tell us do whatever you wish
to do but do it modestly, as without
modesty you are neither here nor
there,” she says.
It was at the instance of her
brother that she decided to join the
civil services but not before finishing
her B.Ed. from the Delhi University
Central Institute of Education.
Thanks to her training as a teacher,
had she not joined the civil services,
she might have been teaching in a
university. “There is a teacher in me,”
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issue 6 | September 2014
PHOTOS: RAJEEV TYAGI
to! She remembered this considerate
gesture, and offered the same flex-ible
conditions to a junior officer,
Abhilasha, who wanted to extend her
maternity leave to feed her newborn.
The officer changed her mind and
rejoined duty the next day.
The designation on the nameplate
outside her office as Director-General
simply read: Public Servant. The mes-sage
that she wanted to convey to the
current lot of young officers, who are
more concerned about power and
perks, is that all officers across the
board are public servants, with spe-cific
duties, roles and responsibilities.
In school, when everyone kept
saying that they wanted to be a good
teacher, doctor, nurse or engineer,
she would say, “I would want to be a
good human being….”
“Today as I look back, I discover
that I did not become a doctor or engi-neer
but I did become a good human
being and it is a different matter that
I was also a bureaucrat. To remain
a good human being I have to make
fresh efforts every day. I read good
books and learn new things from
everyone,” she says.
She belonged to an illustrious but
unconventional Muslim family in Old
Delhi. After Partition they were one
of the two or three Ashraf—meaning
“educated” families left in Old Delhi—
where the bulk of the people were
Karkhanedars, or the ones who run
small factories or working class. Both

3. FIRST STIRRINGS
rasheda hussain
she says with pride in her eyes.
This explains how after 33 years of
service, Rasheda Hussain was keen
to hand over the prestigious post of
Additional Secretary, Cofeposa, and
step in as the DG of the National
Academy of Customs and Central
Excise (NACEN).
In her two-year stint as DG, she
was instrumental in starting the
mid-career training programme
under which young officers are
sent to prestigious business schools
and institutions abroad and come
back with greater exposure and
confidence. Another initiative which
seems to be fructifying is a new 300-
acre Customs Academy at Hindupur
in Karnataka. The present 22-acre
academy at Faridabad is grossly over-stretched.
Initially set up for about
20 probationers, it is now catering
to batches of 200-250 probationers.
Apart from this, she tried to develop
soft skills and esprit de corps or affinity
for service among the probationers.
OVER the years, the values,
ethos, customs and traditions
among the IRS probationers
have undergone a sea change.
Young officers come in with a lot
of expectations about what they
want but not what the organisation
should get from them. In the early
1970s, when there was no academy,
probationers used a makeshift guest
house in Delhi’s Hauz Khas colony
where 20 chairs were put in the living
for study. There were no complaints,
whereas now young officers want the
best of faculty, comforts and easily feel
disgruntled. Soft skills like gratitude
is lacking in them.
Things have changed since Hussain
joined the Indian Revenue Service.
Some 20 years back, the Income
Tax officers argued that since they
were also generating revenue for
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vol. 8, issue 6 | September 2014
www.gfilesindia.com the government, they should also be
called IRS. It became the IRS (IT) &
IRS (Customs and Central Excise).
Both are considered sister services.
The income tax officers are concerned
with direct taxes while the customs
and central excise officers collect
indirect taxes. Then, in 1994, service
tax was also added to the customs and
central excise portfolio. Currently,
the challenge before the service is to
manage GST in collaboration with
State Sales Tax Departments.
“When I joined service and
occupied a seat—I forgot that I was a
female and the person sitting before
me was a male. The way I treated
them, they would get the message and
treat me as a colleague, not a woman,”
she says.
Other landmarks in her profes-sional
life included a deputation as
PS to the Union Health Minister and
Joint Development Commissioner,
Textile, as well as the Commissioner,
Central Excise, in Faridabad and
Mumbai before moving to the Centre
again as Joint Secretary to the GOI,
Department of Revenue, handling
Cofeposa cases as the detaining
authority. It was a very sensitive
assignment: A person could be sent
to jail without trial on the basis of
a detention order issued by her. In
addition to this, she held charge
as Joint Secretary, Revision
Application, and passed final orders
in certain types of cases of customs
and excise on behalf of the Government
of India. These cases do not go to
the tribunal.
“I didn’t have unrealistic expecta-tions
from the Service. My husband
was transferred quite frequently and
I was always seeking a posting after
him and most of the time my Board
was sympathetic and I got a transfer
within a few months. I got my dues,
my promotions on time and earned
the respect of my department,” she
says. This, in fact, gave her the lux-ury
of self-confidence where nothing
could tempt her or make her go astray.
One of the priorities that she set
for herself was that family was her
primary responsibility. “Working
ladies—Muslims or otherwise—
should behave like an officer in office
and forget that they are an officer at
home and behave only like a mother,
sister, wife or daughter-in-law. I gave
my 100 per cent from 9.30 am to 6
pm. Once I reached home I would for-get
the office files. An eight-hour job
is not 100 per cent part of a woman’s
life. You have to learn to switch on
and switch off.”
Luckily, she has an understand-ing
and friendly mother-in-law
who was used to her own husband’s
transferable job in the UP irriga-tion
department and provided full
support to Hussain for her work. Both
share a healthy understanding and
make it a point to celebrate the two
Eids together. “I invested in relation-ships
and earned the respect of my
service colleagues and my family,” she
says proudly. g
As told to Neeraj Mahajan