Army must change its mindset

The Supreme Court has struck a sound blow for gender parity in the Indian Army once again by permitting, in an interim order, girls who have completed school to appear for the entrance test to the National Defence Academy on September 5 and strive for permanent commission as officers. The Army had been stonewalling against measures to bring about gender equality and had been admonished more than once for an attitude that betrays a fundamental prejudice against women.

It was risible that women candidates should be kept out only from the NDA as they are eligible to apply for and train at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) and Officers’ Training Academy (OTA).

They are also eligible to serve in the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force with far less restrictions, which points to the Indian Army not being able to shed its male chauvinistic approach.

The top court was quite voluble in pointing to the defects in mentality towards women and also that gender discrimination is glaringly present in Army recruitment and service rules. When it also came to the matter of granting women permanent commission, the Indian Army had to be not so much coaxed or cajoled as much as ordered by the court to mend its ways in a landmark 2020 judgment. Combat roles are open to women as fighter pilots in the IAF but only in 10 Army streams.

It has taken the Indian armed forces considerable time to see the light in the matter of gender equality whereas some countries had opened up combat roles as early as in the 1980s. Many countries have been known to have passed legislation to allow women into their armed forces in all positions, including command role posts in combat support divisions and frontline duties. That it took judicial intervention in the 21st century to offer women their fundamental right to serve on par with men in the armed forces is a comment on Indian society as a whole.