As Indian Supreme Court cleared the paths for women in the National Defence Academy (NDA), now there are 30 per cent women candidates for the prestigious institution that trains cadets to be officers in the national defence sector. This information was given by the Ministry of Defence in Parliament on Monday.
The cadets recruiting exam, which has been opened for women for the first time, has one woman for every third applicant. As defence ministry said,“ 5,75,856 candidates applied for this year and Among them, 1,77,654 are women. Necessary infrastructure and other facilities for training of female candidates are in place. The information was given by minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to Dr Amar Patnaik in Rajya Sabha.
Moreover The reply stated there was no restriction on the number of women candidates, who could apply for 2021 National Defence Academy examination. "Medical standards and obligations have been notified in the UPSC notification. Physical standards will be finalised before commencement of training," the reply added.
In September this year, Supreme Court said there should be no suspension in permitting women aspirants to seat for the exam as Centre wanted more time to make arrangements and the Ministry of Defence said it would put in place a mechanism by May 2022.
Entry to NDA would also pave the way for women getting permanent commission as their male counterparts who graduate from the institution. The Indian Army has granted permanent commission to 577 women officers since February 2020 after the Supreme Court verdict on the subject that also made women officers eligible for commanding their units.
Permanent commission to more women officers will also pave the way for women playing larger roles in the army and also hold commanding post.
Earlier, the government defended granting permanent commission to women officers mentioning some bizaare reasons like poor hygiene in rural areas to motherhood and child care, leading a life of isolation and troops from rural backgrounds unwilling to accept women officers as commanders to the Supreme Court and later the apex court denied all the reasons government placed.
Granting permanent commission to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers is allowed in streams like Army Air Defence (AAD), Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), and Intelligence Corps in addition to the existing streams of Judge and Advocate General (JAG) and Army Educational Corps (AEC). But Women officers still cannot serve in infantry, artillery and armoured corps—combat wings deployed at the most forward locations facing the advesary.
The army has also improved its policy on issues like training, physical endurance and postings and service courses to bring about equilibrium in service conditions for male and female officers after the Supreme Court verdict.
Women entrance in the Army till now has only been through Short Service Commission (SSC) and a majority could not serve beyond 14 years, however there were some who continued on extensions but were still not given permanent commission.
Source: India Today.
