New Delhi: In the second major step towards enabling women officers in the armed forces to serve in combat roles in the past few months, it was the Navy’s turn on Wednesday to announce that it is “finalising” a policy for women officers “to serve on select warships that have appropriate facilities for women”.
In a path-breaking decision, the Navy also announced that “seven women officers from the batch of Short Service Commission officers of the education branch and naval constructor cadre, who joined in 2008-09, have been granted permanent commission” in service. The Navy also announced that “starting in 2017, women officers can choose to join as pilots of maritime reconnaissance planes — Boeing P8I, Dornier, etc. — as also in the Naval Armament Inspectorate cadre”, and that “a total of eight branches/cadres will be opened for women officers in the Navy”.
IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha had recently announced that the first batch of Indian women fighter pilots, comprising three cadets, will be inducted in the Indian Air Force on June 18.
This marks a change in the positions of at least two of the three armed services compared to the positions they took about a decade ago. A report submitted by the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) — comprising the then service chiefs — to the government in 2006-07 had recommended exclusion of women from combat roles in the armed forces.
The report was submitted then after a study was conducted by the COSC “on all aspects related to women officers in the armed forces, including induction in combat roles”. The study had recommended “exclusion of women officers for the present in close combat roles where chances of physical contact with the enemy are high”.
But the outlook seems to have changed rather drastically in the past decade. In a statement on Wednesday, the Navy said, “In order to demonstrate that women are second to none in tough adventure activities, a crew of six naval women officers, including the skipper, is meticulously preparing for the first all-women circumnavigation of the world in 2017 by an Indian team in an indigenously built ocean sailing vessel, Mhadei II.”
Naval sources had said a few months ago that naval women officers may also be posted on warships in the next few months and that warships being built are being configured such that they have separate accommodation quarters for women officers.
This is the second major step towards enabling women officers to serve in combat roles after the IAF and ministry of defence (MoD) decided last year to allow women IAF officers to serve as fighter pilots.
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha had recently said, “We inducted women as pilots in 1991, but on only helicopter and transport (planes). I must thank the defence minister for having approved the IAF’s proposal to induct women as fighter pilots. Very soon...On June 18, the Air Force will get women fighter pilots. ... As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training... They are on par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on June 18.”
The three women IAF cadets are Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh. The three are expected to undergo advanced training for a year after they are inducted and are likely to be eligible to fly fighter aircraft from June, 2017.
