Strengthening Stree Shakti, says Rajnath
Welcomes SC’s permanent commission order
Defence minister Rajnath Singh Monday said that the government is working to strengthen the “Stree Shakti” in the Armed
Forces and is committed to moving forward in this direction.
“I wholeheartedly welcome the Supreme Court’s judgment on giving women officers permanent commission in the Armed Forces. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has supported the idea of permanent commission for women and annou-nced the change in policy in his Independence Day speech in 2018,” said the defence minister.
In 2019, the ministry granted permanent commission to women in all 10 branches of the Indian Army, including Signal Corps, intelligence, aviation, engineering, service corps and ordinance corps, said the defence ministry.
It said the historic decision to allow women in field operations came earlier when the then defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that women will be inducted in the military police.
The defence ministry said that the recruitment process for women in the military police has started in 2019. The plan is to recruit women in roles ranging from probing crime cases to assisting
the Army in field operations wherever required, it said.
“There have been instances where certain women officers have been in the job for nearly twenty years, while SSC term terminates in fourteen years,” said the ministry.
The defence ministry said that before 2016, women constituted just 2.5 per cent of India’s Armed Forces, working mainly in non-combat roles.
As of January 2019, 3.89 per cent of the Army personnel comprised women.