Suneha Gadpande: First Woman To Lead Cargo Ship MT Swarna Krishna With All-Female Crew

Captain Suneha Gadpande created history by leading an all-women team on an Indian cargo ship. Today, on International Women's Day, the Delhi Commission for Women awarded numerous women for breaking barriers in different fields and Captain Gadpande was one of the awardees.

Chairperson of DCW Swati Maliwal shared a picture of Captain Gadpande being felicitated with the caption, "Meet Suneha Gadpande, it happened for the first time in history that India's cargo ship MT Swarna Krishna left Mumbai and there were only lady officers on it, this ship was led by Captain Suneha Gadpande, she faced many difficulties to reach this point has done."

A member of DCW, Promila Gupta shared details of the ceremony on Twitter and wrote, "A program organised by the Delhi Commission for Women under the leadership of President Smt. @SwatiJaiHind ji, in which brave and courageous women from different parts of the country are honoured."

Suggested Reading: To Be Different And To Dare: Women Navy Officers Onboard Naval Tanker INS Shakti

Who Is Captain Suneha Gadpande?

Born and brought up in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Captain Gadpande comes from a middle-class family. Her father is a retired RBI manager and her mother is a retired cop. Her elder sister is a doctor and her elder brother is an engineer.

Gadpande was pursuing Mechanical Engineering from NIT Bhopal when she was called in for an interview by the Shipping Corporation of India Limited. She then joined the first batch of women cadets at SCI in 2003.

Since then, she has been sailing across the world's oceans on merchant tankers including piracy areas. She has been nominated for multiple awards, in 2016, she was felicitated by the then President of India Pranab Mukherjee and the Ministry of Women and Children Development. Since 2017, she has been serving as the Pink Ambassador to campaign breast cancer awareness for India Turns Pink Foundation. She is a graduate of the SCI's training institute in Powai.

(Feature Image Credit Swati Maliwal/ Twitter)