Sea change: Indian women are making their presence felt in merchant navy

Seema Sachdeva

AFTER sailing for 18 years, Capt Suneha Gadpande took a break from being an officer on ship last year, taking up a shore job as Marine Superintendent for Hafnia Shipping in Singapore. Aware that her biological clock was ticking, she’d frozen her eggs six years back. The 39-year-old is looking forward to a new phase in her life. She is aware that life won’t be easy if and when she returns to the ship as a single mother, but she is used to challenges coming her way ever since she joined merchant navy, a male bastion.

In the first batch of the girl nautical cadets of the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) in 2003, Suneha went on to command an all-women officer Indian tanker merchant ship, Mt Swarna Krishna, a first in maritime history. Having left the SCI in 2012 with a masters ticket, she became the first Indian woman to hold a senior rank in a multi-national shipping company. Honoured by former President Pranab Mukherjee for being among the 100 women achievers of India, she was recently recognised under ‘Bharat ki Laxmi Abhiyaan’ by PM Narendra Modi. All these achievements came with a multitude of struggles, which included facing hostile conditions, battling egos and making tough choices even at the cost of her career.

A strong advocate of gender inclusivity, Capt Suneha says, “For your voice to be heard, it is essential to prove your mettle.”

In spite of nearly 17 per cent of the seafarers worldwide being from India, second after the Filipinos (30 per cent), the presence of Indian women in merchant navy remains miniscule, at less than 1 per cent.

“Starting the career itself is quite challenging since most companies won’t let you reach them. It took me more than a year after completing BTech (Instrumentation) to find a company that was willing to take girls on board,” says Priyanka Sen from Rajasthan. After two years in the profession, this 28-year-old Electro Technical Officer is referred to as the ‘Dabangg’ girl. The initial bias and suspicion over her capabilities to handle the ship by herself have been replaced by respect, including from her male colleagues.

Second Officer Parul Luhach (30) from Faridabad agrees. “The hard reality that women were not welcome in merchant navy hit us after we finished our course. Not just women from our batch, even our seniors or super seniors had not been able to get any placements. It was after more than a year of completing the course that I was able to get an opening. Today, I see myself as a changed person. This profession has polished me.” Parul entered merchant navy purely by chance 10 years back. She was already in her first year at Delhi’s LSR College when a friend’s sister told her about the profession. Parul had a tough time convincing her Haryana Jat family that she wanted to enter this male-dominant profession. With support from her grandmother, she took the plunge. She doesn’t regret the life she has chosen.

Mohali-based Nidhi Walia (30) had never been a shy girl. However, as a girl cadet in the merchant navy a decade back, her confidence and ability to grasp and communicate well in English turned out to be a stumbling block initially. “Many male colleagues found my confidence hard to digest. For them, it would have been easier to deal with a woman who was not asserting herself. It was my family’s support that helped me pursue my passion to explore the world and earn well.” As Chief Officer, her work entails loading and offloading cargo, besides personnel management on the ship. “When you work with more than 20 men, it raises your confidence and you feel you can face any kind of situation in the world,” says Nidhi.

It is not all smooth sailing, for this profession brings with it loneliness. More so, when you are the only woman on a huge ship. According to Meenakshi Gupta, director of Hong Kong-based marine consultants and trainers Sygnus Marine, “Working in long shifts is not everyone’s cup of tea. Life at sea is extremely tough, even under the best of circumstances. Think of isolation, boredom outside of shifts, sea sickness, no Internet (the horror of not having Insta, Facebook and WhatsApp, in today’s world!), long contracts and no social life. For seafarers, in general, it isn’t easy, but more so for women due to the absence of emotional support from your own gender.”

Once on the ship, the most difficult part is not just dealing with professional hazards and lack of emotional support, but also pressure from families back home to get married. “Finding a match for women seafarers is not easy as most people find it difficult to accept that the woman will not be home for six to seven months after marriage. Mostly, a career break is required then,” says Parul.

Dr Malini Shankar, Vice-Chancellor of the Indian Maritime University, Chennai, says, “Earlier, very few women entered this sector but with emphasis on diversity and equality, one finds females enrolling in marine courses. Many shipping companies like Maersk and MSC are offering handsome scholarships to women cadets.”

“In 2018, we had only 2 per cent women enrolling in BTech. The number has gone up to 8 per cent. Their presence in BSc (Nautical Science) too has gone up from 2 per cent to 8.2 per cent — the most popular courses being BTech in naval architecture and ocean engineering. At present, there are 74 girls in nautical sciences, 97 in BTech, 53 in BTech (naval architecture).” Interestingly, many girls entering this profession are from North India, though one would expect those from coastal areas to have an overwhelming presence, Dr Shankar adds.

The maritime industry remains perhaps the last of the male bastions that women are still struggling to break into. According to a 2021 survey report, ‘Women in Maritime’, issued by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the proportion of women employed as seafarers globally is very small, and the percentage of those from India is barely 0.5 per cent.

The new Seafarer Workforce Report from BIMCO and the International Chamber of Shipping has warned that the industry must significantly increase training and recruitment levels if it is to avoid a serious shortage of officers. Given the growing demand for Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) certified officers, the report predicted the need for an additional 89,510 officers by 2026 to operate the world merchant fleet. Currently, 18.9 lakh seafarers operate over 74,000 vessels around the globe. Female STCW-certified seafarers are estimated to be 1.28 per cent of the workforce. The IMO has been pressing to bridge this gender gap. Change is taking place, albeit slowly. Gender sensitisation is being mandated as part of the training courses. Most evident is the changing uniform of women. The loose men’s jumpsuits they had been wearing are being replaced by customised shirts and pants, besides availability of sanitary pads on ships. A proper maternity leave policy is also being reviewed. Many companies like the SCI have at least two women officers on board.

In an effort to become gender inclusive, a number of shipping giants are bringing in changes in their policies. Container logistics giant Maersk last year rolled out India’s first women seafarers’ cadet programme. As part of its ‘Equal at Sea’ initiative, it has set for itself an ambitious 2027 goal of women making up for 50 per cent of its fresh cadet intake. Presently, the company has 40 per cent of its naval staff coming from India. Interestingly, it has no Indian female seafarers at higher ranks, the company confirmed.

A woman officer, on condition of anonymity, says all this talk about getting more women on board is mere eyewash. Most companies are only interested in getting the diversity numbers, she claims, adding that women get bypassed for senior-level posts despite undergoing the same training. Hiring needs to be done not only at the entry level but also at operational levels, she adds.

“Gender sensitisation is the need of the hour,” says Harjeet Joshi, who was the first woman chairperson of the SCI. She flagged off the first all-women officer tanker merchant ship carrying 50,000 metric tonnes of inflammable cargo in 2021. The feat was repeated a year after. “The idea was to prove that women officers are as capable when it comes to handling even the most difficult of ships,” adds Joshi. “It is fashionable to talk about equality and diversity,” she points out, “but deep down, have we given up the grudges and perceptions? It will take decades for the mindset to change.”

It was a century ago in 1923 that Sumati Morarjee joined her father-in-law’s company, earning the sobriquet of ‘the first woman of Indian shipping’. With their grit and determination, Indian women are making their presence felt in merchant navy, one step at a time.

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