Indian Army To Implement Gender-Neutral Selection Board

From 2024 to 2045, the Indian Army will allegedly use a single selection board for both male and female officers who want to become colonels.

For promotion to the rank of colonel, the joint selection board will be held for all officers starting with the 2009 batch.

The latest change comes after the Indian Army recently held a Special Selection Board for women officers to move up from Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel, putting them on the same level as their male peers. It takes place from January 9 to January 22, 2023.

Army officials say that 244 women officers from the 1992 batch to the 2006 batch are being considered for promotion to fill 108 positions. This includes Engineers, Signals, Army Air Defense, Intelligence Corps, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, and Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

The government has made openings for this Special No. 3 Selection Board so that the affected women officers can be promoted. This is to make sure that men and women are treated equally in the Indian Army. Sixty women officers who were impacted have been asked to be observers for the Selection Board. This is to make sure that the process is fair and to clear up any concerns they may have.

When the selection board is done, the 108 women officers who have been deemed “FIT” will be considered for different command positions. Indian Army sources said that the first set of these orders will be sent out by the end of January 2023.

Women Officers work in different parts of the Indian Army’s operations. In order to give women the same chances as men, the Indian Army has given women officers the same Permanent Commission (PC) as men officers. With PC, women officers can aim for more fame and take on more responsibility and higher ranks.

All women officers who have been given PC are going through special training classes and hard military jobs to prepare them for higher leadership positions in the Indian Army. Officials from the Indian Army said that PC has also started for women officers in the younger groups. They are considered for PC after 10 years of service.

With PC, women officers are entering an age of gender equality and getting ready to take on challenging leadership roles, just like their male peers. Five Women Officers (WOs) have passed the famous Defence Services Staff Course (DSSC) and Defence Services Technical Staff Course (DSTSC) Exam, which is held every September. This is the first time this has happened. The five WOs will take a year-long course, which will give them enough weight when they are considered for leadership positions.

Combat pilots who are also women have joined their male peers in different aviation units. Women Officers in the Engineers, Army Air Defense, and Signals are already making a difference in the front lines. The Corps of Artillery will soon allow women to join. A woman cop was sent to a post in the Saichen Glacier not too long ago.

The Indian Army was the first of the three Services to let women become soldiers in the Corps of Military Police. Our Women Military Police soldiers have made the organization and the country happy by doing their jobs in the most professional and skilled way possible. Some of them have also been the country’s representatives at foreign military gatherings and UN missions. The ‘Agnipath Scheme’ will also be used to train women fighters in the Corps of Military Police.

Army’s ‘Nari Shakti’

As part of another effort to spread “Nari Shakti,” we have so far hired six talented athletes into the Corps of Military Police through our Mission Olympic Programme. “We have made it much more important for our women soldiers to take part in UN Peacekeeping tasks.

In line with the UN’s Gender Parity drive, we recently sent an Enhanced Female Engagement Team of two Officers and 25 Women Soldiers to the strive in Abeyi region of Africa to help women and children in one of the most difficult operational and terrain conditions under the UN flag. “Officials said that this is one of the most difficult operational and terrain conditions under the UN flag.”

Women officers already take part in a variety of adventure activities and are part of airborne formations for operational use. However, the recent skydiving by three women soldiers is a new start, and the Indian Army plans to do more like it to encourage young women to join.