Chennai-born Raja Rajeswari, who came to the U.S. when she was 16 years old, has become the first Indian American to be seated as a criminal court judge in New York City.
Rajeswari, 43, most recently an assistant district attorney at the Richmond County District Attorney's office, was nominated to the bench by Mayor Bill de Blasio, as reported earlier by India-West. She assumed office April 14.
“It’s like a dream. It’s way beyond what I imagined," she previously toldsilive.com, a Staten Island Web site.
“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 in the district attorney's office for 16 years, was also 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.
Rajeswari told a New York newspaper that she observed gender inequality even before coming to the U.S. 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 prosecutor in New York, she has observed numerous cases of spousal and child abuse in the South Asian community, Rajeswari said. “Many of the domestic violence victims have been South Asians, Sri Lankans."
Currently, there are two Indian American male judges in civil courts — Jaya Madhavan on the New York City Housing Court in Bronx County and Anil C. Singh of New York County Supreme Court’s 1st District, according to News India Times.
Rajeswari is also an accomplished Bharat Natyam and Kucchipudi dancer who continues to perform at Indian events and temples with her troupe, the Padmalaya Dance Academy, named after her mother, Padma Ramanathan
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