A Union Cabinet minister said that the national government has given the Indian Army’s plan to hire women as officers in the Regiment of Artillery its stamp of approval.
Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State for Defense, told the Lok Sabha on March 31 that the decision to let women become officers in the Artillery was made on March 20. Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, a BJP MP from Vadodara, had questioned if the government planned to let women join artillery units and, if so, what efforts had been done thus far in that direction. He was answering her question.
In his one-line answer, the minister added, “The government has agreed that women can join the Regiment of Artillery on March 20, 2023.”
In January, the Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, said that a plan had been forwarded to the government to let women become officers in the Regiment of Artillery. At the time, the General noted that empowering women in the Army is a priority and that women are expected to achieve well in the Artillery.
The actual number of women officers who will join the Artillery won’t be known until the end of the year, when the next group of officers is sworn in at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai.
Artillery is a part of the Army that helps fight and is the second largest branch after infantry. The Artillery Regiments have cannons of different sizes, surface-to-surface missiles, tracked guns, mortars, and unmanned aerial aircraft.
On March 1, Centre also gave the go-ahead for women to join the Remount and Veterinary Corps as officers. Ajay Bhatt told Parliament that four of the 20 officers who will be sent to the RVC in 2023 are women.
The Army’s regiments and Corps are split into two groups: Arms and Services. Arms include Infantry, Armoured Corps, Artillery, Engineers, Signals, Army Air Defence, Army Aviation Corps, and Military Intelligence. Women can now serve in all arms except for the Infantry and the Armoured Corps, which are regarded to be fighting arms.
Women officers also work in the Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), Army Education Corps (AEC), Judge Advocate General Branch (JAG Br), Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Medical Corps, Army Dental Corps, Remount and Veterinary Corps, and Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME). (RVC). In the Military Nursing Service, they are also in charge of nursing.
According to information that the Ministry of State (MoS) gave to Parliament on March 17, there are currently 6,993 women officers in the Army. This includes Army Medical Corps/Army Dental Corps and Military Nursing Service officers.
In 1992, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs gave the go-ahead for women to become officers in the Army as part of the Short Service Cadre. In March 1993, the Army Service Corps (ASC), the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), the Army Education Corps (AEC), and the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Department hired their first group of 25 women as officers.
In November 2021, women officers who had been given permanent commission could move up in their careers without regard to their gender. This gave women officers who are commissioned in the Arms and Services the same chances as men.
In another recent decision, the defense services made it possible for women to apply to the NDA. Every six months, 19 cadets, including 10 from the Army, join the institution. The NDA will start training its first group of women cadets in July 2022. The second group will start training in January 2023.
Since 2021, the Army has also made it possible for women officers to become Army Aviation Corps pilots.
Women officers are also being considered for the rank of Colonel (Select Grade), and some of them are already in charge.
-
-
-
-
