Women in Indian Army: Time for Policy Review and Course Correction

Women in Indian Army: Time for Policy Review and Course Correction

Major General Mrinal Suman

The services are a highly disciplined and hierarchical organisation. Resultantly, commanders enjoy unbridled power and tend to acquire misconceptions of their infallibility, resulting in faulty decision making. The decision to induct women, taken in the early 90s by a service Chief, was one such decision. India aped foreign militaries – ‘if other armies can have women, we should also have’. Thus, the decision was taken in a cavalier, hasty and slapdash manner. It was neither need-based nor well thought-through. No attempt was made to study likely long term implications of multiple issues involved. 

It is a well established fact that the extent of women’s induction in any military is guided by three basic imperatives. One, countries with secure borders and peaceful environment can accommodate more women in their militaries and assign passive duties to them as compared to militaries facing hostile internal and external environment. Two, technologically advanced militaries generate considerable requirement for highly skilled women for high-tech non-combat support functions whereas low-tech militaries are always man-power intensive and depend on extensive physical ground effort. Finally, some countries have to recruit women to make up deficiency of required number of male volunteers.

When judged against the above parameters, India does not lend itself to the induction of women in the services – majority of Indian troops are deployed on active combat duties and there are few safe appointments; India is still a second generation technology force which is trying desperately to upgrade; and India is not short of suitable male volunteers.

Earlier, entry of women was kept restricted to the Army Medical Corps, the Army Dental Corps and the Military Nursing Service for decades. It was in 1990 that a decision was taken to grant Short Service Commission (SSC) to women in some select non-combat branches in the three services. The first batch joined in 1992. Earlier the period of their pre-commission training was 24 weeks. It has now been increased to 49 weeks. Barring the medical stream, women officers are inducted on short service commission in select branches of the three services.

As per the information provided to the Parliament in August 2012, the women officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force constituted only 3.3, 3.9 and 10.4 percent of the officer cadre respectively. The number of women officers in the services was 1,214, 302 and 1,079 respectively. These figures exclude the medical stream women officers.

The Current Policy

As a number of women officers felt aggrieved at the denial of permanent commission, they approached the Delhi High Court. The Honorable Court, in its ruling of 12 March 2010, held the denial of permanent commission to the applicant officers to be discriminatory. In pursuance of the court orders, the services accommodated all applicant women officers in permanent commission as a one-time exception. 

Fearing further litigations and court interventions, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) decided to evolve a well-considered and comprehensive policy on induction of women. It sought inputs from the services. A policy paper was prepared by a High Level Tri-Service Committee. It was forwarded to MoD after the approval of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Keeping in mind the role and responsibility of the armed forces, the new policy was promulgated on 11 November 2011.  As was being done earlier, it allowed induction of women officers as SSC officers in the following branches/cadres,:-

a)   Army – Engineers, Signals, Army Aviation, Air Defence, Electronic and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, Intelligence Corps, Army Education Corps and Judge Advocate General. 

b)   Navy – Judge Advocate General, Logistics, Observer, Air Traffic Controller, Naval Constructor, Education. 

c)   Air Force – In all branches and streams except fighter stream of flying branch.

   

There is no separate fixed sanctioned strength for recruitment of women officers and they are recruited within the overall authorised strength of officers in the respective service. Women SSC officers are eligible for consideration for grant of permanent commission along with male SSC officers in specific branches in the three services viz. Judge Advocate General and Army Education Corps of Army and their corresponding branches in Navy and Air Force; Naval Constructor in Navy; and Accounts, Technical, Administration and Meteorology Branches in Air Force. However, grant of permanent commission is subject to willingness of the candidate, service specific requirements, availability of vacancies, suitability and merit of the candidate as decided by each service. 

An Infructuous Decision

To date, no one has been able to justify the decision to induct women in the services – it was not a need based policy. Low-tech Indian military is totally dependent on raw physical strength of its manpower and women are biologically unsuitable to undertake such tasks. There is no shortage of male volunteers.

Although standards of physical fitness for women have been pegged at appallingly low levels, most women fail to achieve them. For example, males are required to jump across a 9 feet wide ditch with full equipment and personal weapon; women are unable to negotiate the prescribed 5 feet wide ditch. There have been reports of entire batches failing to qualify. Many women find it difficult to withstand prolonged physical and mental pressures of the service. Concerns have been expressed about the women officers being highly prone to back problems, pelvic injuries and stress fractures.

One does not need to be a visionary to understand that grant of SSC to women at 24 years of age is the most impractical proposition. That is the time for them to get married and raise their families. With standard two child norms, they spend most of their service tenure in producing and nursing children. For every delivery they are exempted physical activities for a period of three years – one year pre-natal and two years post-delivery. It implies that a woman officer is rarely in a position to participate in field exercises and has to be exempted all out-door work. Worse, some women never participate in outdoor exercises, claiming that they are trying to conceive and physical exertion can cause miscarriage. Thus the services gain little and are in fact taken for a ride.

To start with, the tenure of SSC officers was five years, extendable to 10 years. With the recent increase in women’s service to 14 years, a woman officer can become second in command of a unit and officiate as its commanding officer as well. In an Engineer or Signal unit she would be an advisor to the Divisional Commander. Without having commanded a platoon or a company and without having attended essential professional courses, it would be unfair to expect her to be able to perform. 

It is often claimed that women are inducted to make up the shortage of male officers. There cannot be more ludicrous argument. There is no shortage of male volunteers to join the services but many candidates are found to be unsuitable. In the case of men, the services do not want to dilute the standards even marginally in the fear of compromising the quality of intake. However, when it comes to women, standards are reduced to ridiculously low levels.

Is Anyone Happy 

Although women have been serving in the militaries of developed countries for a long time, they are still grappling with various functional, social, behavioral and psychological issues involved. Women’s absorption and adjustment has not been smooth in any military. The profession of arms is all about management of violence. Soldiers’ behaviour, ethos and attitudes are conditioned accordingly. The environment tends to acquire a certain degree of coarseness which many consider to be alien to women. 

Many women complain about lack of job satisfaction. They feel that their talent is not given due recognition and their competence remains under-utilised. Some women feel that despite their technical qualifications, they are generally detailed for perceived women-like jobs – either a routine desk work or duties related to social minutiae.

Most of the women opting for a career in the services belong to families where their upbringing has been in a highly sheltered environment. A career in the military is at the other extreme. They admit having limited knowledge of military life at the time of joining. Subsequently, life in the military comes as a big shock to them. While some adapt to it well others find the task to be too daunting. For example, whereas swimming is a compulsory training exercise, many refuse to wear swimming costume. 

Management of women officers is a great challenge for the environment. After a tough field tenure, every officer looks forward to a good peace posting to be with his family and sort out family issues. But a large number of peace postings at junior officers’ level are held by women officers on compassionate grounds, thereby depriving male officers of their due share. It has become a sore point with many.

Many seek special dispensation being the weaker sex, conveniently forgetting the fact that they had joined the military on the plank of equality of sexes. They avoid field exercises on some pretext or the other – either they are not well or the children are small or the children have school tests. Consequently, male officers have to do women’s share of duties as well. 

Notwithstanding the public posturing, the overall feedback with the experience gained over the last 20 years has been highly discouraging. Although commanders admire women for their commitment, sincerity and enthusiasm, they show reluctance to have women under their command.  It is not a question of chauvinistic male bias. It is just that the women cannot be assigned many duties. There have been cases when unit commanders have preferred to be deficient of their authorised officer strength rather than have women officers. They consider them to be a liability as considerable resources have to be diverted to ensure their comfort, dignity and safety, without commensurate advantages. 

Many routine duties (like patrolling, night duty checks) cannot be assigned to women. For example, every officer is detailed as a duty officer and has to visit the Quarter Guard and all sentry posts at midnight to ensure their alertness. Similarly, they are required to visit troops’ barracks at lights-out to ensure that all mosquito nets are down and even check the cleanliness of latrines. As women officers cannot be assigned such duties, male officers have to undertake additional work load, which they resent.

Interestingly, some male officers feel that presence of women amongst them tends to make the environment ‘formal and stiff’. They miss their light hearted banter which all militaries consider essential to release work tensions and promote group cohesion. They consider women to be intruding on their privacy. 

As regards their acceptability as leaders, most soldiers consider their induction to be a political gimmick that merits no serious deliberation. “How can a leader, who is unable to carry her personal weapon and equipment and keep pace with us, be expected to lead us in war?” is a common refrain of soldiers. 

Notwithstanding the above, India is proud of the fact that women in the Indian services are being treated in a manner befitting their dignity and self respect, despite the traditional social background of the Indian soldier. 

The Way Forward

In early 90s, when the euphoria on induction of women was still raging, a group of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) was overheard discussing the issue in all seriousness. The oldest JCO in the group remarked, “The Army has enough problems at hand. I do not know why another one is being sought.” Another JCO made a confident declaration, “The Army is going to rue its decision in near future.” There was a rare unanimity in the group – they were all convinced that the move to induct women was ill-conceived and totally unwarranted. Events of the last few years have proved their apprehensions to be prophetic. The said group of JCOs could foresee what the top brass of the services failed to.  

True to their propensity for damaging their own cause, the services are in a deep mess which is totally of their own making. Instead of earning kudos for giving women a chance, the services are getting flak from the judiciary, media and self-appointed experts. Demands are being made to grant permanent commission to women in the combat arms, a demand that is unprecedented in any army of the world. Worse, some have gone to the ridiculous extent of demanding constitution of all women battalions. A matter that critically affects the health of the services has been belittled as one of ‘equality of sexes’.

Women must continue to play a dominant role in the medical, dental and nursing services. Their contribution in providing medical support to the soldiers has been invaluable. They have done India proud by rising to three-star ranks. Lieutenant General Punita Arora and Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay, both of the Medical Corps, were the first to attain the ranks of Lieutenant General and Air Marshal respectively.

As stated above, grant of SSC to women is a totally wasteful exercise and should be stopped. They should only be considered for  permanent commission in Judge Advocate General and Army Education Corps of Army and their corresponding branches in Navy and Air Force; Naval Constructor in Navy; and Accounts, Technical, Administration and Meteorology Branches in Air Force. In addition, they could also be considered for permanent commission in the Survey of India, Military Engineering Service Militarised Cadre, Director General Quality Assurance and such organisations.

The current policy of non-induction of women in combat arms should continue. For that matter their entry into Engineers, Signals, Supply Corps and Ordnance (and equivalent branches of the Air Force and the Navy) should be deferred for the time being. The policy could be reviewed after a few years, once the environment becomes more conducive for their productive employment. 

It should never be forgotten that the sole raison d'être for the constitution of the military is to ensure security of the country. It is not a ‘rozgar yojna’ (employment scheme). The armed forces need the fittest person to perform assigned tasks.  Therefore, decisions which have a far reaching effect on the potential of the armed forces must be taken with due diligence and not on account of political and populist expediency. *****