In a significant first that will herald a change in the Indian Army's structure, the Army on Thursday kicked off an online registration process to recruit female soldiers. Till now, women were only recruited as commissioned officers.
In the initial approval, the Army is set to recruit nearly 100 female soliders as the official website notification calls for the post of 'Soldier General Duty'. The proposal for the overhaul was moved by General Bipin Rawat after he took over as the Army Chief. The final clearance came from the Ministry of Defence as the NDA government had also promised more representation of women in the Indian forces.
EC sources, meanwhile, clarified that even when the Model Code of Conduct is in effect, there is no bar on routine administrative matters like recruitment in defence forces.
After the application process is thrown open on Friday till it closes on June 8, the recruitment will be carried out at five locations — Ambala, Lucknow, Jabalpur, Bengaluru and Shillong. After the registration, a cut-off list will be generated for further rounds of selection, according to the official notification.
To qualify for the post, the women candidates need to clear a Common Entrance Exam, following which, they will have to appear for the Physical Endurance Test.
Prior to this, in yet another advance, the Indian government had announced that women officers can get permanent commissions in the armed forces.
On the question of whether the recruitment call during election season was a violation of the MCC, sources in the EC cited the letter dated March 27, 2014 to the Government of India which clearly states that "MCC is not applicable to any matter pertaining directly to the defence forces, be it the recruitments/ promotions for defence forces, all service matters pertaining to them, defence purchases of all kinds... and consequently no reference need to be sent to the Commission pertaining to model code in these matters."