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NRI Rachna Singh becomes first South Asian woman
minister in BC, Canada

Los Angeles, Dec 08, 2022
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh

NRI Rachna Singh, a postgraduate in psychology from Panjab University here, has created a history of sorts after she was sworn in as Minister of Education and Child Care of British Columbia, Canada.

She is the second Punjabi after Moe Sihota to handle the portfolio, but the first South Asian woman to be appointed to such an important position.

Rachna Singh is a Canadian politician and trade unionist, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2017 provincial electionand was re-elected in 2020 provincial election. She represents the electoral district of Surrey-Green Timbers as a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party caucus.

About Rachna Singh

  • Rachna moved from India to Canada in 2001 and chose Surrey to build a better life for her young family.
  • She has worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor,
  • A support worker for women facing domestic violence, and a community activist.
  • She is married to Gurpreet Singh, a journalist for the Georgia Straight and publisher of the Radical Desi magazine.
  • Rachna has two children.
  • Rachna Singh was born in Delhi, India in 1972. She grew up in Chandigarh, Punjab, India. 
  • Rachna was doing her Master’s degree in Psychology when she decided to apply for immigration.

In the beginning Rachna and her family had to overcome many barriers because an Indian education wasn’t valid in Canada at the time. Many people that were doctors in India were driving taxis here. According to Rachna, although Canada has tried to ease this difficulty, this struggle still exists.

Discrimination was still seen in the early 2000’s. When people immigrated here, they got used to the lifestyle but they didn’t know the history of Canada. Rachna has seen people of her own community talking about Indigenous peoples in a degrading manner. She is very happy to see the education system teaching children about the struggles that the Indigenous peoples had to face. She believes that this way, the children will go home and spread this knowledge to their parents. According to Rachna we have to be very compassionate and empathetic towards Indigenous peoples of Canada; we cannot forget what happened to them because it is their land that we are all living on.

Rachna is thankful to her family and friends that helped her through this journey. In Rachna’s eyes, racism and sexism is still an issue today. People that have any type of power need to recognize this.