Kerala chief secretary calls out colour, gender bias

“Heard an interesting comment yesterday on my stewardship as chief secretary – that it is as black as my husband’s was white,” Muraleedharan said in a social media post on Tuesday in reference to a recent remark about her work being compared with that of her husband, V Venu. The 1990-batch IAS officer had immediately succeeded Venu as the chief secretary of Kerala in August 2024.

The chief secretary, in her post, questioned the comments made against her about her complexion and her gender. “It was about being labelled black (with that quiet sub text of being woman), as if that were something to be desperately ashamed of,” she said.

“I have lived for over 50 years buried under that narrative of not being a colour that was good enough. And buying into that narrative. Of not seeing beauty or value in black. Of being fascinated by fair skin. And fair minds, and all that was fair and good and wholesome. And of feeling that I was a lesser person for not being that - which had to be compensated somehow,” Muraleedharan said.