Click to play videoNew Delhi: After a 14-year experiment with an ad hoc presence of women in its midst, the Indian military is finally ready for a make over – it's ready to cede a permanent place to women.
“Permanent commission for women has been accepted by all the three services,” Chief of Personnel, IAF, Air Marshal S Mukherji said.
So far, women have had a largely ceremonial presence, without a chance of making it to higher ranks. Now, they will be treated like any of the boys.
“They will do exactly the same things that the men do in the services. They will compete with us in everything from the word go,” Mukherji said.
For the first time, women will enter feeder institutions like the National Defence Academy. No limits will be set for recruitment of women, but the perennial dilemma of allowing them in combat arms stays.
“It would be non-combatant in the sense till we can accept that they can come into contact with enemy or not,” Mukherji said.
There are also the cultural adjustments to deal with. Several women officers on short-service tenures have alleged harassment. And recently, one of them threw the military's social fabric into turmoil by deciding to marry a sergeant
But the Army seems to be ready to deal with it all. “There will always be protocol problems,” Mukherji said.
One does not know quite when the country will be able to see a female efface in the distinguished line-up of service chiefs. However, what is certain is that the last male bastion, the armed forces, will have to accept women as an integral part of military life.
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