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Gender equity: welcome step

Last Updated 21 May 2019, 18:40 IST

The Indian Army has taken another welcome step by deciding to induct women in the Corps of Military Police. The military police is a non-combat stream which has till now been closed for women. Recently, army chief Bipin Rawat had indicated that a proposal to induct women into some other sections, like accounts and audit services and information warfare and as cyber specialists and interpreters is also under consideration. Other services have also made some progress in the recruitment of women in some cadres. The navy has plans to induct women in some services similar to the military police. It has women officers in some streams like education and law. There are women in logistics and armaments sections, and some also work as reconnaissance pilots. An all-woman crew of INSV Tarini recently successfully circumnavigated the globe. The navy has said that a proposal to recruit women as sailors is under consideration, and the problem is not of willingness but of infrastructure. The air force has stolen a march over the two other services by inducting women as fighter pilots.

Traditionally the armed forces had limited women only to what are considered soft cadres, like medical services. Changes started taking place in the 1990s when some more areas were thrown open to women. But the process of delivering gender equity in the services was too contested and too slow for a country where women enjoy equal rights and have made more rapid progress in many other areas of life. The recruitment in the military police, which is now planned to be made, will be only for 1,700 women. They may be given duties related to search operations and may even be posted in risky and sensitive areas, but will not be put on combat duties.

The real test of the armed forces’ commitment to gender equity will be when women are given combat roles, as they are given in the armed forces of countries like the US, Australia and Israel. Women have proved themselves to be no less than men in such roles in these countries. In India, they have proved their mettle in every section they have been placed in. But there is strong internal resistance to giving women bigger and higher roles, though public postures on the matter have become more moderate recently. Women now form only a small percentage of the forces. They need to be recruited in all ranks and all positions in much greater numbers. The incremental progress now being made in all the three services is good but not enough.

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(Published 21 May 2019, 18:33 IST)

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