Women's Day 2019: After years of being kept out of key roles, Indian women in military have new paths to forge with permanent commission

Women have always been effective in battle. When society dictated that they are too frail to take up arms. women fought and won wars. Now that waves of feminism have secured a better space for their recognition, women still continue to fight and win.

The biggest wars in the world are those where women have not only taken to the battle lines with derring-do usually never ascribed to them, but also where they have performed the founding functions of cooking and nursing. From the World Wars to the American Civil War and the Indian struggle for freedom, there is no history that could have afforded to forget the contribution of women in armed fights.

Women in the military are now no longer an object of awe, they form an integral part of regiments and could well lead men into the lines. While one can argue that the time for women to disguise themselves as men in order to fight on the front lines is gone, it also remains to be seen whether the time has come yet for decisive, battlefront roles to be given to women at last.

The idealisation of women as leaders, fully armed, has not yet translated into their presence in the most dangerous of stand offs or clashes, even now.

Absent in combat

When it comes to combat, women are left out the fray entirely. In an opinions editorial for NDTV , Communist Party of India politburo member Brinda Karat wrote, “The reason put forth by the service chiefs before the Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Empowerment was that in the case of women being captured by the enemy, the troops would be demoralized. So it is not women’s safety which is the concern here but that male morale would be affected if “their” women were captured. Women as trophies for the enemy or women as symbols of the nation; nothing about the sovereign rights of women themselves.”

This year, the all-women Assam Rifles contingent made history on the Rajpath on Republic Day. The feat was widely publicised and remains an emblem of what is possible for women even in the remotest parts of the country. Yet although the sight of  woman officer Captain Shikha Surabhi standing on a moving motorcycle, riding in front of a team of 33 men on nine bikes through the Rajpath, can instil inspiration, the truth remains that few women come forward to choose careers in the military?

In December 2018, 13.09 percent of the Indian Air Force comprised women. The percentages were 6 for the Indian Navy and 3.80 for the Indian Army.

Induction of women into military roles has been rather slowly in the country with most of the major developments concentrated in the last 30 years. For a country which had women in the military since the late 19th century, it was only in 1992 that India started hiring women in non-medical roles. In the path set by the likes of Noor Inayat Khan (a special operations executive in the World War I) and Kalyani Sen (one of the first to serve in the Women’s Royal Indian Navy service in the World War II), on 19 January, 2007, the United Nations’ first all-female peacekeeping force made up of 105 Indian policewomen was deployed to Liberia.

The decision to induct women in the military police with an aim to enhance their representation in the armed forces was announced by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat last year. The Army Chief also said last year that the Indian Army was not ready to have women in combat roles. “Let us not compare ourselves with Western nations, which are more open,” he had said .

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, considered by many as the first woman to have the position in the country, has said that women will be inducted in the military police in a graded manner, and will eventually comprise 20 percent of its total strength.

A victory at last

However, the biggest victory for women in the military came on 5 March when the defence ministry announced that women officers will now be granted permanent commission in all 10 branches of the Indian Army.

Women were earlier inducted for short service commission in the Armed forces. This decision puts them at par with their male counterparts. They can now serve for a longer duration across all 10 branches.

The ministry made a few other announcements that should come across as good news for women. In so far the Indian Air Force is concerned, “all branches, including that of fighter pilots, are now open for women officers ,” it said.

In 2018, Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh had made history by becoming the first-ever women to undergo fighter pilot training at the IAF. Their stories, like the one reported by Times of India , including details of how they gradually escalated from solo sorties on Pilatus PC-7 turboprops and Hawk jet trainers into MiG-21 Bisons, scripted the intricacies of a path that offered them new challenges every day.

The 5 March statement by the Ministry of Defence also had good news for women looking for a career in the Navy. “In Indian Navy, all non-sea going branches/cadre/specialisation have been opened for induction of women officers through Short Service Commission,” the statement said.

The proposal for induction of “three new training ships” that will have training facilities that are required to house both men and women is underway, the ministry also said in the statement. Once the ships are acquired, women will be hired in all branches (and not just non-sea going ones) of the Navy.

In the Central Armed Police Forces, the Union Public Service Commission had made it possible for women to enter the forces. However, the home ministry, in March of 2016, had announced that women will be allowed direct-entry in all five of the Forces’ wings, at par with the men.

The journey has been a long one for women to be considered physically capable of roles in the military, yet it has by no means ended. This Women’s Day, the bar is forever raised by the likes of the women who wake up at the crack of dawn to train as soldiers with the same dream as their male counterparts.

With inputs from PTI