NCC girls have just 4 reserved seats in Army

Vijay Mohan

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 2

The government is focusing on women’s empowerment and envisions a greater role for them in the armed forces, but a large number of NCC girls aspiring to become Army officers are unable to fulfill their dream because of an extremely limited number of vacancies available to them.

There are only four vacancies reserved for girls in each course under the NCC Special Entry Scheme for C-Certificate holders at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, that imparts training to candidates selected for short service commission. On the other hand, there are 50 seats reserved for boys in this category. 

“For the 39th Course commencing shortly, there are 271 girls from this region alone that have applied against the four vacancies,” Maj Gen GS Chima, Additional Director General NCC, who heads the Punjab, Haryana, HP and Chandigarh Directorate, said. “If we consider NCC’s 16 other directorates across the country, the number of girls applying would be several thousand,” he added. Major General Chima said while a large number of eligible girls lose out the chance to become officers, 10-15 vacancies for boys in each course remain unfilled as many aspirants fail to meet the stipulated criteria. Fro the aforementioned course, 686 boys from this region had applied.

Two courses commence at the OTA every year, with the annual vacancies being eight for girls and 100 for boys. Applicants under the NCC scheme need not undergo any written entrance exam, but are directly called for interview by the SSB.