Permanent commission for women in armed forces: Modi

In a major decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced from the ramparts of Red Fort that women officers can now opt for permanent commission in the armed forces like their male counterparts. At present, women officers are inducted through Short Service Commission(SSC) and can serve up to 14 years. Once given Permanent Commission, they will be able to serve up till retirement.

Making this policy announcement, Modi described it as a “gift” to the “brave daughters. I want to give a good news to our brave daughters. Women officers who have been appointed through the Short Service Commission in the armed forces will get permanent commission through a transparent process” while addressing the nation on the occasion of 72nd Independence Day.  In a tweet, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman thanked the Prime Minister for this decision.

In his speech, Modi also hailed the all-women Indian Navy team that successfully circumnavigated the globe on board the sailing vessel INS Tarini.  The “daughters of our country” returned home after spreading the hues of the tricolour across the oceans of the world, the Prime Minister said.

The six-member crew, on board the INSV Tarini, spent 194 days at sea as part of a mission that began on September 10 last year.  President Ram Nath Kovind approved gallantry medal for the entire team lead by Lt. Commander Vartika Joshi.  The other members are Pratibha Jamwal, P Swathi, Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta.

Regarding the issue of granting permanent commission, at present, 1,561 women officers are serving in the Army, 1,610 in the IAF and 489 in the Navy.  Most of the officers in the three Services are SSC officers. 

The IAF has thrown open its doors for women officers in the combat stream by inducting three officers as fighter pilots  and they are undergoing training.  However, the Army has so far refrained from doing so and women officers are recruited in non-combat arms like Engineers, Education, Ordnance, Intelligence and Judge and Advocate General(JAG) branches amongst others. The Navy has women transport and helicopter pilots. But women officers are not deployed on warships and submarines.

A case relating to grant permanent commission to women in the Army is pending in the Supreme Court. The government had approached the top court after the Delhi High Court in 2010 ordered it to give women Army officers selected through SSC a permanent commission.

In April this year, the government told apex court that it was considering granting permanent commission to women Army officers.  A group of women Army officers recruited under SSC scheme had approached courts seeking Permanent Commission status.  

The Defence Ministry also said it required six months to formulate modalities and introduce changes and alterations in the three forces. “All three wings of the armed forces and the Ministry of Defence are actively considering the issue of parity between male and female officers in securing permanent commission in the armed forces,” the ministry said.

Following Modi’s announcement, the Government is likely to come out with a comprehensive policy in the next couple of months on permanent commissioning of women in the three Services, sources said.

The Army, Navy and IAF has, meanwhile, allowed permanent recruitment of women in select streams including medical, education, legal, signals, logistics, engineering and several other streams.

The women officers recruited through the SSC in the IAF have the option of seeking permanent commission in all streams except the flying branch. Navy has allowed permanent commission of women in a host of departments such as logistics, naval designing, air traffic control, engineering and legal.

The Army offers permanent commission to women officers in two branches including JAG and education.