Kate Forbes, the second highest minister in Scottish government has chosen family over politics.
The realisation that she must spend more time with her baby came to her in an orphanage in Pune.
Scotland's Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes who spent eight years in India as a student has quit politics for family.
Forbes, 35 took the decision so that she could spend more time with her three-year-old daughter Naomi.
A star of the Scottish National Party, first elected to parliament at 26, Forbes was seen as a future first minister.
Her decision has come as a huge surprise to her party and Scottish politics.
The Times, London, reported that the realisation that she was missing her toddler's formative years came to Forbes during a recent visit to the Deep Griha Society, an orphanage on the outskirts of Pune.
'These were slum kids from Mumbai with ill-fitting clothes and shoes twice the size of their feet. I felt what an unfair privilege my daughter has and yet not getting the benefit of it. And that was that,' quoted The Times.
'Motherhood is a great thing but I am not doing a terribly good job of it. I want to do a better job of it', Forbes told The Times.
The newspaper said that Forbes travelled four hours from her home in Dingwall to parliament in Edinburgh and four hours back every week with her baby.
The parliament creche was available for three hours a day and she often had to depend on 'childminders and family friends'.
Forbes studied at Woodstock school in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, from the ages of 15-17, Classes 7 to 9.
Her mother also taught at the school, her brothers were pupils too.
Her father worked as an accountant and volunteer at the Landour Community Hospital which also serves a large number of underprivileged patients in and around Mussoorie.
Forbes lived in India for a total of eight years while her father was finance manager for the Emmanuel Hospitals Association.
The family lived for five years in Ludhiana before moving to Uttarakhand.
On January 18, 2023, Forbes visited Woodstock with husband while on a trip to India.
She graduated from the University of Cambridge and completed her masters from the University of Edinburgh. She worked for Barclays as a chartered accountant and was the youngest MP elected to the Scottish parliament in 2016.
Forbes saw a rapid rise in politics and was Scotland's first finance secretary in 2020.
She narrowly lost the race for leadership of the Scottish National Party in 2023 and returned as deputy first minister in May last year.
The deputy first minister is the second highest minister in the Scottish government.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
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