Women in Defense: An Indian Perspective

We all talk of giving women equal rights, and efforts have been made to allow women to compete with men. In many areas’ women given the opportunity have made good progress and have broken through the ‘glass ceiling’. But in many places, they still face the problem and defense is one such area. While in many Western countries women have reached top positions in defense forces commanding thousands of troops, squadrons, and battleships, in India it’s still a problem and women who are in defense services have to face a lot of hardships to reach a top position or even so, get respect as a leading officer or commander of a unit traditionally dominated by men.

Cases of sexual harassment and asking for sexual favors from female counterparts by male seniors have not helped their case either. While women in India have served in the medical branch for a long; only now are they being given permanent commission that too only in law and other non-combat areas. Although the most emphatic victory, Indian armed forces gained was in 1971 under the leadership of Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, a woman for 4 years supreme commander of Indian armed forces was Pratibha Patil, another woman Nirmala Sitharaman became the first ever Défense Minister, now we have Draupadi Murmu as the President and supreme commander of Indian Armed Forces.

Still, the percentage of women in the armed forces is really abysmal. Even after the Short Service Commission was started for women in defense, they have been discriminated against a lot. It took the success of the courageous ‘around the globe’ expedition of ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’ by 6 women chosen from various branches of the Indian Navy to prove their mettle despite apprehensions from family and male colleagues. The 2nd edition of ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’ which started recently will see 2 women circumnavigate the globe.

Policymakers must know that it's discriminatory to ban females from performing certain duties in the armed forces. They should be tried on their individual merits and have their suitability evaluated and compared to other male candidates limiting their career in the armed forces to a maximum of 15 years is not acceptable just the fact that when they become pregnant after marriage, they take a break from performing their duties or opt for soft positions. It must be noted that a female complying with such high demands as in the armed forces is unlikely to become pregnant unawares, a time when most women take a long sabbatical during pregnancy and after childbirth. Below we will talk about situations in defence forces in India concerning serving women.

Air Force

While it has been over 50 years since women in Western countries and particularly in the communist Soviet Union started flying fighters/bombers with some even becoming fighter aces and serving for long years in their respective air forces, in India it was not until the mid-1990s that women started entering Indian Air Force. While in the US Air Force, there have been instances when women have taken part in the Gulf War flying missions dropping bombs from bombers like B-2 and B-52; it is said from mid-90s the women in the US Air Force have also flown frontline fighter jets.

But in India, women were allowed only the Short Service Commission (SSC) in the Indian Air Force and that too are allowed to fly only helicopters and transport planes that too in peaceful areas, with those in the ground staff also being denied permanent commission. While demand for the permanent commission was rejected time and time again; with various defense ministers categorically saying India does not need women fighter pilots, it may be noted that even a conservative Muslim country like Pakistan had women flying fighter jets before India.

Only in the past 3-4 years we see that IAF has inducted women fighter pilots, like Avni Singh. A former air chief had once said women in IAF can’t fly fighter jets and if they do, they can’t have kids till a certain age as IAF will spend crores on training them and must recover that money. Since Avni Singh, IAF has had many women flying fighter jets but the numbers are still likely below 50. In all probability it will still take Indian women fighter pilots several more years to reach the position of squadron leader or above.

Indian Navy

While women have been serving in warships across navies across the world, even a conservative Muslim country like Malaysia has women serving on warships. But in India women have not been allowed to serve in warships simply because of the logic that there is less space. Though Indian women did manage to break the glass ceiling recently when 2 Haryana girls became radio operators on an Indian Navy aircraft, but on ships of Indian Navy it’s still a different story till recently.

It may be known hot bunking in warships where 2 people share a berth is common, but its indeed necessary that women need to have additional space like wardrobe and separate berth. Though till now women have not got chance to serve on surface ships, this changed when Commander Prerna Deosthalee became the first woman officer to command an Indian Naval Warship, INS Trinkat. The launch of INS Shivalik which has a cabin exclusive for 2 female officers just beside the captain’s cabin may well be the start when women in Indian Navy will serve on warships as officers, but does the ship have any onboard is still not known. Even former President Pratibha Patil had asked for making arrangement for women to serve on aircraft carriers. It is reported that there are 4 – 5 women officers on INS Vikrant aircraft carrier.

It took the success of courageous ‘around the globe’ expedition of ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’ by 6 women chosen from various branches of Indian Navy to prove their mettle despite apprehensions from family and male colleagues. These 6 women completed the over 21000 nm trip in little over 250 days. The INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant both have room for at least 100 women officers among over 1500 who will man those ships, but the numbers are way short of required.

But still Indian women serving in submarines is a far-fetched dream, even though worldwide most navies prohibit women from serving on submarines, except for those on the Royal Norwegian Navy, Royal Danish Navy, Swedish Navy, Royal Australian Navy, US Navy, German Navy and Canadian Navy. It may be known that in 1995, Solveig Krey of the Royal Norwegian Navy became the first female officer to assume command on a military submarine, HNoMS Kobben; and since then, several women across various navies have assumed command of ships, but an Indian woman commanding a submarine or even be deployed onboard a submarine is a dream that may never be realized.

Indian Army

The world’s 2nd largest army numerically is woefully short of women officers. With regiments formed on the lines of states, caste; it’s impossible to think women will get a chance to be part of such a large force. Sometime back, OTA Madras saw the first female best cadet to be awarded the sword of honour, from among 150 trainees including men and who even led the passing out parade, for a woman to get a permanent position in army is still a far-fetched dream, with only 11 arms and services.

Though some instances have occurred, where women were allowed to get posting in potentially risky areas and they happily accepted it. But the chauvinistic attitude of men in Indian armed forces, refuses to accept women as part of their contingent who can do the same thing as they can do. There was an instance when a newly recruited women officer of Army Ordinance Core was given the charge of transporting material to forces stationed in jungles of Manipur. It’s said when these men heard of their replenishment supplies coming were happy but when they learned that a woman officer led it, they became upset.

It’s said the men were unhappy with the fact that a woman was a part of the entourage and were even more upset when they learnt that they had to set up a separate tent for the lady officer with a separate area that she was to use as her bathroom. Even though across the world all major armies have had women as army combatants who have taken part in battles and earned laurels. It’s still a far-fetched dream for women in Indian Army.  Only recently a women officer as a medical officer got to be part of a para special forces unit.

Last Word

Though women in para military forces like CISF, RPF, STF and CRPF apart from police forces have been given permanent commission, just few years back the first contingent of women joined the BSF and were deployed on the border tasked with securing the border. Women are expected to join armed forces in large numbers in future, as they see a job in armed forces as a viable career option. As that happens hopefully the defence top brass may be expected to give in women officers demand of permanent commission across all branches and divisions promoting gender neutrality providing a safe and unbiased work opportunity.

Even though many cases of harassment against women in uniform are still being reported, it’s important that men in uniform need to be acclimatized and familiarized with presence of women in uniform and as an officer to whom they report, without letting their ego coming in between their work. It’s important that armed forces of India treat women as equal and give them the opportunity they deserve with a sense of pride for serving the nation. Let’s hope India can do it for its women.