Women will now serve as sailors in warships, submarines and other operational areas after getting trained as Agniveers in the next one year or so, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said here on Saturday.
Giving details of the women now getting inducted for the first time as sailors in the Navy, he said 341 of them are now undergoing training after getting selected as Agniveers under the newly introduced Agnipath scheme. Overall, 3,00O Agniveers including 341 women were selected after the Agnipath scheme was rolled out on June 14 this year. Kumar termed the Agnipath scheme as transformational.
He said women were selected as per standard norms and after training all sailors will be posted according to their capabilities. He also said the Navy is committed to gender neutrality adding “this is a landmark event for us as we are inducting women sailors for the first time.”
The Navy chief also said from next year women officers will be posted in all branches of the Navy adding women officers are serving in the force for the last 17 to 18 years. Commodore Shantanu Jha said the 341 women sailors would be inducted into 29 trades in the Navy.
On budgetary allocation, the Navy Chief said this year it was 17.8 % which is quite adequate and in terms of spending they have been able to manage it “quite well” and have achieved a Revenue to Capital expenditure ratio of 32%-68%, which he said accords “flexibility in pursuing their capability developments plan.”