Your chance to be the British High Commissioner to India for a day

The British High Commission (BHC) is inviting applications from Indian women aged 18-23 to be ‘High Commissioner for a Day’ – a chance to oversee the UK’s largest overseas network.

The winner will experience a wide range of UK-India work, meet with senior stakeholders and partners to discuss our collective response to Covid-19, and launch a new BHC Gender Charter reaffirming our commitment to gender equality.

 To participate in the pan-India competition, please record and upload a one-minute video on ‘what global challenges and opportunities do you see for gender equality in the age of Covid-19’. The video must be shared on either Twitter, Facebook or Instagram by tagging ‘UKinIndia’ and using the hashtag ‘#DayoftheGirl’.

The deadline to apply is September 13k, 2020.

 Jan Thompson, Acting High Commissioner to India, said: “I am delighted to launch our fourth High Commissioner for a Day competition. Empowering women and girls globally is one of the UK’s top priorities and we continue to work with governments and partners around the world as a force for good, including in India, to make that a reality. This competition is aimed at giving our amazing young women a platform to shape the world we live in. I’ve been inspired by the brilliant applications we’ve received from all over India over the past years, and look forward eagerly to seeing even more this year.”

 The British High Commission has run the ‘High Commissioner for a Day’ competition annually since 2017 to celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child (observed on 11 October), empower the next generation of women as leaders and trail-blazers, and to highlight some of the challenges women and girls around the world still face.

 Last year’s competition was won by 22-year-old Ayesha Khan, a mass communication student from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. As ‘High Commissioner for a Day’, she visited Apeejay School in Pitampura to observe a British Council programme promoting gender positive roles; met with women working in Delhi’s unorganised sector to learn how they are supported by Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and hosted a discussion with a beneficiary of Facebook’s GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) programme. She also met with business, foreign policy and civil society leaders.