Army mulls permanent commission for women

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7

The Army is considering granting permanent commission to Short Service Commission women officers in streams other than the currently allowed Judge Advocate General Department and Education Corps.

Speaking at a function organised by the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), the women wing of the business body, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said her ministry was “working day and night to open up the defence sector for women”.

The minister said “each of these services has taken their own approach towards getting women a limited option of getting into their force and as a result there is no parity within the three services either”.

“The Air Force has opened it up for women to be fighter pilots and that is absolutely the front-end and top-notch level to which women can reach whereas in the Army, women are still not up for many of the positions except for the Medical Corps,” she said. The minister promised to take a synchronised position for all the three services.

A senior official said they were “looking to meet aspirations by creating a specialist cadre that will include image interpretation, cyber cell, information technology cell, language specialisation and air traffic control”.

Acting on a petition for permanent commission in 2012, the Supreme Court had asked the Army not to release any woman officer from service till the finalisation of the case.

In April this year, the Defence Ministry had told the Supreme Court that the government was not averse to granting permanent commission to woman officers in the Army. The court was also told that no permanent commission would be granted in combat roles as no SSC was offered in this stream.

1,561 woman officers working in various streams of the Indian Army at present

292 of them are in the Army Ordnance, which is highest among all the streams

246 woman officers continuing beyond 14 years pending the SC instructions