Women in Indian Armed Forces

Though Constitution guarantees equality to all, regardless of their gender, though there are heated
debates going on about women working at par with men, regardless of field. There are still certain
non-questionable fields, out of such is the Indian Armed Forces. In Indian Armed Forces, women are
allowed only in certain selected areas in for instance, medical, educational, legal and engineering
fields, but they are not even considered as a subject to be appointed in the combat roles due to
being ‘’apparently unfit’’ for serving the purpose. This also is partially because men can’t digest the
fact of being led or headed by a woman. It was initially very awkward and unacceptable for men to
see women doing something other than traditional roles. Even when women work with them, men
are often cautious with their behaviours and think them to be inefficient in their work. These values
come from the old orthodox and conservative family beliefs, where they are still used to seeing
women doing household chores. In a country, where everyone talks about equality, starting from
the State to the People, there is a need to have protectors of the same, and not a rebel against the
upliftment of woman as a leader. How ironic is it to say to have a problem with a particular gender
of the society who are equally responsible for our own existence, who has made what we are today.
Moreover, shocking news is that gender barrier still exists in most of the countries, other than that
of Asian countries. Countries like Germany , Australia, the US, Canada , Britain, Denmark, Finland,
France, Norway, Sweden and Israel are those few countries that have broken this gender barrier and
have had their women achieve what they deserved and promoted as well as provided the equal right
and opportunity to serve the country. All this while in the Armed Forces, the work women had was
to look after the injured, provide medical aid to them, and to look after the prisoners. The whole
idea of taking women in the army began in 1888, when the “Indian Military Nursing Service” was
formed during the British Raj. The downfall or the other side of the coin is that from 1888 to
(approx.) 2017, it took women 129 years to at least have the right to be considered to work in the
army at par with men, to get promoted from working in the medical and nursing department, to
serving the country as a Jawan. Now that women are in the army, the Indian Air Forces are also
following next in the line and Indian Navy is also considering the same.
A study in 2014 said Indian Air Force had 8.5% women, Indian Army had 3% women and Indian Navy
2.8% women. Also it is very important to keep in mind that women married to the officers are
equally brave to have the courage to send them and away and live only on the hope of their
returning. Now as the time changes, we can see men have accepted women in uniform and that
they are equally efficient in their jobs and have entered the team to stay for a long time. The time is
not far when we see woman as a combat, leading the troop, and use the terms ‘sisters-in-arms’ just
like ‘brothers-in-arms’ is used for men.

TANVI GARG