Paving the way for empowering women officers to shoulder larger roles, the Union government on Thursday issued a formal sanction letter for grant of Permanent Commission to women officers in Indian Army, according to the spokesperson of the Indian Army. The order specifies grant of Permanent Commission to Short Service Commissioned women officers in all ten streams of Indian Army in addition to the existing streams of Judge and Advocate General and Army Educational Corps (AEC), the spokesperson added. Their Selection Board will be scheduled as soon as all affected SSC women officers exercise their option and complete requisite documentation.
Till now the percentage of women in the Indian Army was only 3.89 per cent, Navy 6.7 per cent and Air Force 13.28 per cent, excluding the medical corps, dental corps and Military Nursing Service.
Entry of women in the Army till now has only been through Short Service Commission (SSC) but till now they could not serve beyond 14 years, however, there were some who continued on extensions but were still not given permanent commission.
There are over 300 women officers who are serving for more than 14 years on extension.
Bizarre reasoning like motherhood, physiological limitation, childcare and troops from rural backgrounds not accepting women in command roles were cited by the government, but was junked by the Supreme Court while giving permanent status to women in Army.
