Army Makes Historic Announcement to Induct 800 Women as Military Police!

The move, which helps break gender barriers in the defence forces, will have some women personnel eventually stationed in the conflict-ridden Kashmir Valley to carry out tasks like frisking women.

By Vishaka George

September 9, 2017

In today’s encouraging news for women – the Army has finalised a plan to induct women in the military police! This is seen as a major move towards breaking gender barriers in the armed forces, NDTV reported.

Adjutant General of the Army Lt. Gen. Ashwani Kumar said, while addressing a press conference, that the army planned to take in about 800 women in the military police with a yearly intake of 52 personnel.

For representational purposes only – First-ever women recruits of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) patrol the India-Pakistan border fence at Attari village near Amritsar, India, September 11, 2009. Source – Flickr

Another senior official, who wished to remain anonymous, said some of the women personnel would eventually be stationed in the conflict-torn Kashmir Valley to carry out tasks such as the frisking of women.

The announcement comes a day after India’s first full-time defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman took office, giving us hope that similar decisions, like admitting women in combat positions, will now be sped up.

Earlier this year, the Indian Army said it was considering opening up combat roles for women, the Hindustan Times reported.

If this decision is to see the light of day, then India will join the ranks of only a handful of countries in the world have done so. They are Germany, Australia, Canada, the US, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden and Israel.

How are the other armed forces looking when it comes to inducting women?

The Indian Navy is looking over a policy to get women on board ships. The Navy, however, allows women in various other segments like legal, logistics, naval architecture and engineering departments.

The Indian Air Force made a historic announcement last year when it admitted three women as fighter pilots – Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh. But this is currently on an experimental basis. The decision to have full-time women fighter pilots will be made after an evaluation of their performances.

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