America
Raja Rajeswari becomes New York's first Indian-American judge
Washington, April 16
Chennai born Raja
Rajeswari, who came to America when she was 16, has become the first
person of Indian descent to be named as a criminal court judge in New
York City.
Rajeswari, 43, an assistant district attorney at the
Richmond County District Attorney's office, who was nominated to the
bench by Mayor Bill de Blasio, formally assumed her new office Tuesday.
"It's like a dream. It's way beyond what I imagined," she was quoted as saying by silive.com, a Staten Island news website.
"For
someone like me, an immigrant who comes from India, I'm beyond
grateful," she said. "I told the mayor this is not only my American
Dream, but it shows another girl from a far away country that this is
possible."
Rajeswari, who has worked at the district attorney's
office for 16 years, has been the deputy chief of the Special Victims
Unit for more than four years.
She hopes to use her new position
to improve the judicial system by encouraging interpreters to have more
access to aid immigrants, the news site said.
Rajeswari told
ethnic Desi Talk she had observed gender inequality even before coming
to the US when some of her "brilliant" girlfriends in India were married
off at the age of 14 and 15. "That has always stayed with me."
As
a prosecuting attorney in New York, she has come across numerous cases
of spousal and child abuse within the South Asian community in New York,
Rajeswari said. "Many of the domestic violence victims have been South
Asians, Sri Lankans."
Currently, there are two male judges of
Indian descent in civil court settings - Jaya Madhavan on the New York
City Housing Court in Bronx County, and Anil C. Singh of New York County
Supreme Court, 1st District, according to ethnic New India Times.
Besides
her legal acumen Rajeswari is an accomplished Bharat Natyam and
Kucchipudi dancer who continues to perform at Indian events and temples
with her troupe from the Padmalaya Dance Academy, named after her
mother, Padma Ramanathan.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])