“War does not discriminate between the sexes. Countless women have tended to the dying and wounded in wartime, while others accompanied their men folk on campaign .”
The Indian Army, the guardian of our borders and the protector of our land, is one of the mightiest organizations our nation is proud of. It has a glorious history with innumerable battles won and laurels achieved. However, one predicament that the Force faces is the induction and accommodation of women therein. Raised in 1895 under British Raj and serving the country independently since 1947, it has always forged on with the motto “Turning Boys into Men.” Founded at a time when women were simply expected to marry and tend to a household, the very notion of them leading wars and killing enemies was far-fetched. Eventually the sensational waves of feminism proliferated across the terra firma, causing a remembrance of all the times women had indulged in victorious warfare and conflict. Women served with the French armies during the Napoleonic Wars, for example, and later fought shoulder to shoulder with their Soviet Red Army comrades during World War II. After the United States and France, Indian Army became third in line to induct women into defense when in 1958, the Army Medical Corps granted regular commission to lady officers.
Army personnel are men of much finesse. Part of their training includes a lesson on how to treat women, which is with utter respect and unimpeachable honour. Howbeit, the same training, when minimized against the larger picture, represents the society as it is. It confines women to a certain way ladies laugh, dress, are brought up to wed and are supposed to live with limited choices in life, irrespective of being a military wife or a non-military one. Therefore, even in the Forces, when women step into light with stars on their shoulders, a stroke on the seemingly progressive gentlemen’s mindset is inevitable.
The military is still battling perils of the false macho culture drilled into military minds. The discrimination not only curbs fair minded opportunities in service like preference in promotion or induction in combat arms, but even triggers blatant disrespect and sexual violence. Sexual harassment is rampant in the military with several male officers either not taking the women officers seriously or viewing them as trophies susceptible to exploitation . A recent example is the case of Captain Poonam Kaur of the Army Supply Corps (ASC). In July 2008, she alleged that three officers of her unit had mentally and sexually harassed her and confined her illegally when she resisted their advances .
The calibre and determination of women however, is standing up to misogynistic clampdowns and women are progressively achieving their dream to safeguard the nation. The maiden batch of women cadets joined the Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai in the summer of 1992 in short service commission. Regardless of all the backlash and opposition poured by serving as well as retired personnel, the Army has witnessed many firsts where women have crushed the curtailment. Bereft of any pension after retirement, women were ousted at a fragile age where they were also not equipped with training to perform any other job.
Consequentially, in 2006, Major Leena Gurav filed a writ petition against the terms and conditions of service imposed by circulars earlier that year, as well as the issue of permanent commission . The Delhi High Court in March 2010 gave a judgment wherein it directed the government to extend Permanent Commission to women officers recruited prior to the policy decision and at par with male officers. In 2012, the Army filed an affidavit in the apex court wherein it contended that women officers might not be able to live up to the expectations of a 100 men who pose their trust in the leader in the war zone. The possibility of becoming prisoners of war, frontline trauma, combat hazards and hostility of soldiers coming from rustic backgrounds in taking commands from women officers were cited in the affidavit.
These speculations were finally put to bed when in 2020 the Supreme Court adjudged on the matter stating, “It is an insult to women as well as the army when aspersions are cast on women, their ability and their achievements in the Army .” The Supreme Court directed the government to promote women to command positions as well as grant them Permanent Commission in all the ten services (Corps of Signals, Dental Corps, Education Corps, Medical Core, Ordinance Corps, Service Corps, Corps of Army Air Defense, Corps of EME, Corps of Engineers, JAG Deptt.) where they have been commissioned previously. The Court held that the time has come for a realization that women officers in the Army are not mere adjuncts to a male dominated establishment whose presence must be “tolerated” within the narrow confines. In April 2019, the Army had released an advertisement in the papers which read, “Applications are invited from female Indian citizens for recruitment as Soldier General Duty (Women Military Police).” The more vociferous among the women activists even referred to this step as the “last male bastion” .
Gertrude Alice Ram on 27 August 1976 became the first woman officer in the Indian Army to polish off the rank of major-general, and the first female officer in the Indian Armed Forces to acquire two-star rank . Commissioned in 2000, Lieutenant Colonel Mitali Madhumita is the first woman officer in India to receive a gallantry award, the Sena Medal in 2011 for displaying exemplary courage during the ambush on the Indian embassy in Kabul . Sapper Shanti Tigga is the first female jawan in the Indian Army who joined in 2011. Divya Ajith Kumar, commissioned in 2010, is the first female officer to receive the Sword of Honor. She marshaled an all women contingent of 154 women officers and cadets during the Republic Day parade of 2015 . In February 2020 Madhuri Kanitkar became the third woman to become a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army. Along with her husband who is also a Lieutenant General they will be the first couple to reach the rank together . This list of female warriors is endless. Hopefully the opportunity to serve in combat arms and achieving equal prestige during the general course of life in the Army will see the light of day under guidance of our unprejudiced constitutional values and by the will of fair-minded women and men.
--Written by Jyotika Aggarwal (4th Year)
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