Senior officers in the armed forces believe they are testing waters for a gradual permeation of womanhood in the all-male bailiwick and echelons of policy-making positions. But it is not their business to decide this issue
IN THE EVENTS leading to the Republic Day Parade, it was not only the Guard of Honour presented to the President of USA that had made wholesome news. That a young woman Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force had smartly and flawlessly commanded this inter-services guard was a matter of national pride.
Yes, Wing Commander Pooja Thakur of the administration branch of the Indian Air Force had achieved this feat, of her own admission, with merely three days of preparation. She had led a body of men of the Indian Armed Forces through a regimen of military drill with perfect syncopation. That is the role officers are expected to perform either at the drill square or in military operations.
Only a few days later, however, the whole symbolism of leadership roles, not only for women, but for the whole Officer Corps of the Indian Armed Forces came crashing down when 144 young women officers each of the Army, Navy and the Air Force were herded in separate all women officer contingents, to march down the Rajpath during the Republic Day Parade 2015.
Like good officers they had worked hard and obeyed orders. One was at a loss nevertheless, to understand what the regime at the Centre was attempting to prove, having decided at the highest level to make officers of the Indian Armed Forces, albeit women officers, march en-masse.
The rumour mills in the South Block want the whole charade to be viewed as one of “empowering women”, without even an iota of the distinction that in the armed forces officers, both men and women, lead a body of other ranks, also men and women, in war and in peace. This role-playing is deeply unmeshed in the evolution of the forces and is the edifice of the fighting machine. Therefore, the very process of purported empowerment went on to dilute the stature the women officers enjoyed. Privately, many women officers had claimed that they were being “shown off” on the whims of the political masters. This was stark commoditisation.
Astonishingly, no Republic Day Parade in the past had ever seen so many officers on parade in one go. With as many as 450 officers away for a month-and-a-half from their jobs, for which they were commissioned and inducted into their service, Commanding Officers must surely be pulling their hair. Those in the Indian Navy, which is composed of the smallest officer cadres amongst the three services, would have felt a severe pinch. But if the shortages on the other hand could be endured with a smile, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) would be compelled to advise doing away with these 450 Officer posts.
On the face of it, the induction of women in security forces has pursued a mixed practice. Women medical officers and officers of the military nursing service, by far the oldest established institutions in the armed forces medial services, have set a fine tradition. The Army Medical Corps consciously pursued a non-partisan approach towards its women officers. It was to ensure a fair playing field for both genders.
Women and men in the medical field shared a balanced relationship, free from gender biases. The gender intermeshing was a well-tempered amalgam. They never dithered from tenure on a warship or to serve in UN missions. Women officers have never been discriminated against for promotions. There are several instances of their rise. In 1986, Maj Gen (Mrs) Nirmal Ahuja became the first lady officer to rise to a two star status. Lt Gen and later Surg V Adm (Mrs) Punita Arora and Air Marshal (Mrs) Padmavati Bandopadyay, wore the three star ranks in 2004. They headed the Navy and Air Force medical services, respectively.
Lady medical personnel served in field hospitals at Kargil and Dras with felicity and competence, accompanied Corps and Divisions on exercises as a part of its routine complement, and experienced desert warfare.
There are legends of achievement in Lt Col Shobana Das, who had scaled Mt Everest, and late Wing Commander Geeta Ghosh (nee Chanda), country’s first woman medical military paratrooper in the late 1950s.
In the current scheme of things, women in the army, navy and the air force join only in the officer ranks. But the nature of their employment seemingly foists a second-grade citizen status. The most appalling admission would be that in order to sustain their continuity in the services, they had to willy-nilly seek relief from the courts of law. The impression one gathers is that there is great reluctance to allow them to enter the portals of active service functions. Even though there are productive areas for their useful employment beyond these realms, too.
One can see many. In the air force, for instance, they operate transport and helicopter aircraft as full-fledged aircrew but the Indian Navy finds them suitable to operate only as observers (navigators) on their Dornier Aircraft. The Army Aviation Corps does not have women aircrews for reasons best known to them. In the aviation wings of both the air force and the navy, there are roles for navigators and system operators on board Maritime and AWACS aircraft, which do not go to women aircrew at all, although they would otherwise be quite competent in similar activities on other flying platforms.
Air Defence and Air Traffic Control are activities assigned to them but their grouse is that this freedom to perform is available only up to a point and not beyond, because appointments to senior and managerial positions do not come their way.
Seniors officers in the armed forces believe they are testing the waters for a gradual permeation of womanhood in the all-male bailiwick and certainly upward echelons of policy-making positions. Truly, it is not their business to decide this issue, especially when this is a denial of a level playing field to women officers; who, perhaps, will come out performing better than their male counterparts.