Batting for greater role for women in the armed forces, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday mooted the idea of raising an all-women battalion and deploying women on warships. He further said induction of women through the National Defence Academy (NDA) and allowing girl students in Sainik Schools can also be considered.
At present, the NDA and Sainik Schools admit only boys while warships are also out of bounds for women officers. Parrikar said these institutions can be opened for girls and their deployment on warships as the “psychological barrier” was broken with the induction of female fighter pilots recently into the IAF.
Airing this opinion here while addressing a seminar organised by FICCI FlO, he said even though India is a country of 'Jhansi ki Rani' and Durga, women so far were made to stay away from the armed forces due to various reasons.
“When I became the Defence Minister, I thought that we need to do a strategic move,” the Minister said noting that normally armed forces are male dominated. However, “affirmative action” for women will be done gradually without compromising main task of armed forces which is national security, Parrikar said.
Women officers, so far, are commissioned into non-combat arms of the Army and Navy and these organisations are reluctant to induct women in combat arms due to societal issues and lack of infrastructure.
Keeping this factor in view, the minister favoured combat role for women and said “why not have a complete women team, battalion of women. So the question of women officers leading a men’s team, if there is question of initial resistance to it, can also be taken care of.” He said sometime in future, he will hold consultations with the three Services chiefs on this issue.
Commenting on the perception that soldiers will not listen to a woman Commanding Officer as jawans are not trained for it, Parrikar said he did not agree with this view and said the only restriction “today is infrastructure.”
On the issue of deployment of women officers on warships, Parrikar was all for creating infrastructure for them. The minister, however, ruled out placing women in submarines as they are designed for one gender. He said ships can be modified for women and new ships under construction can be designed to have facilities for them.