GENDER JUSTICE: SHOT IN THE ARM

Yet another male bastion has fallen. Gender-based inequality in the army, denying them command positions, will no longer be lawful. On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the old official position that though women were welcome to join the army, top posts, particularly in the combat divisions, could not be held by them. The court struck a blow for gender-equality, ruling that all posts were equally open to women as they were to their male counterparts. Thus, the apex court merely endorsed the 2010 judgement of the Delhi High Court. A PIL was first filed back in 2003 seeking equality among the sexes in the armed forces. Subsequently, other petitioners joined the litigation, with the twomember bench of the Delhi High Court rejecting the government position to uphold gender equality. Neither security nor physiological differences between men and women, nor for that matter, the morale of the armed forces could deter women from holding top command positions in the army. Evolution of women in the armed forces has been a slow but steady process. It was still expected that after doing a minimum of 14 or more years of service in the armed forces, women officers could avail pension and other retirement benefits without claiming an equal right to hold top command posts. This patriarchal mindset would have to change in the light of the green-signaling by the apex court. Not that a judicial edict would erase overnight the ingrained prejudice against women commanding units of the armed forces. It would not. But, at least, following the apex court judgment there would be no legal bar on their holding such positions. Henceforth, the appointing authority would have to consider the meritorious women for these posts and accept or reject them for the same purely on a priori professional considerations. In a deep-seated conservative social milieu, where a lots of people still look askance at women professionals in diverse walks of life, a woman commanding a largely male-dominated armed force might present a culture shock. But the wheel of progress of which gender equality is a key component cannot be stopped or moved back in the reverse direction. We may still be far away from having a woman as the Chief of the Indian Army, but the court has removed the last legal hurdle in the way. It is for women now to make the best of the opportunity, to join the army in an open competition for recruitment and make their way up on merit and hard work. Stereotypes about women being better housewives than bread-winners still linger in some sections of the society. Happily, thanks to rising awareness as also assertion of their right by women themselves, there is a growing realisation that one half of the population cannot be treated as an inferior gender. Article 14 prohibits the State from discriminating against women merely because they are women. In the 21st century all such distinctions are particularly absurd. As the court said, “…physiological features of a woman have no significance to her equal entitlements under the Constitution…” Truly, the court has spoken for a modern, 21st century India.