Permission granted for permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Army

New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence issued a formal sanction letter to grant permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Army. Earlier this month, Supreme Court had given the Centre one month's time to follow the court's orders on giving permanent commission to all serving SSC women officers in the Indian Army.

The Indian Army spokesperson said that the move will pave way for empowering women officers to shoulder larger roles in the organisation.

The order specifies grant of permanent commission to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) Women Officers in all ten streams of the Indian Army which are Army Air Defence (AAD), Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Educational Corps (AEC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), and Intelligence Corps in addition to the existing streams of Judge and Advocate General (JAG). Earlier this year the Supreme Court allowed permanent commission and command roles to women officers.

The order led the Army to work on tweaking its existing policies on issues like training, physical endurance and postings and service courses to bring about equilibrium in service conditions for male and female officers.

"In anticipation, the Army Headquarters had set in motion a series of preparatory actions for conduct of the Permanent Commission Selection Board for affected Women Officers," says Army statement. "The Indian Army is committed to provide equal opportunities to all personnel including Women Officers to serve the nation," the statement added.

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 medical corps, dental corps and Military Nursing Service. Entry of women in the Army till now has only been through Short Service Commission (SSC). There are over 300 women officers who are serving for more than 14 years on extension.