Indian girl, Canada's envoy for a day, keeps staff on their toes

Medha Mishra with Jess Dutton, Canadian Deputy High Commissioner
Medha Mishra with Jess Dutton, Canadian Deputy High Commissioner

NEW DELHI:  She laughed when asked about the tensions between India and Pakistan, but the 20-year-old Amabassador of Canadian High Commission for a day has some strong views on bridging the gender gap in India.

Medha Mishra, an engineering student from Jaipur, got the chance to get into the shoes of the Canadian High Commissioner after emerging as the winner of a video contest organised by the Embassy and she proved to be a tough boss. She was made the Ambassador of the High Commission for a day to mark the ‘International Day of the Girl Child’ on October 11.

“Being the Canadian Ambassador has been really tough. I have been meeting delegates since morning,” she said, while getting ready for the 2.6 km-long ‘Run for Her’ organised by embassies of 20 countries in Delhi to spread awareness on gender equality.

In the morning she met Canadian High Commission officials to discuss issues relating to the girl child.

“She has been running a tight ship and she made me work a lot,” Jess Dutton, Deputy High Commissioner told The Sunday Standard.

Medha had a choc-o-bloc day as she later attended talks of Ambassadors from Mexico, Australia, South Africa, Finland and the US with the students of IILM Institute for Higher Education here. The talk was on the issue of ‘Glass ceiling or a sticky floor’. “I am a staunch feminist and I believe that gender equality is very important as we are half of the population in the planet,” said Medha, who made a video about ‘Why girl’s rights are important and what can be done to achieve greater gender equality.’

Several Indian states still face the problem of a skewed sex ration and women are under-represented in most public spheres, including politics.

During the talk with the students, the US Ambassador Richard Verma spoke about how his grandmother and mother slogged for getting education after coming to India post-partition and how this influenced his views about gender equality.

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