Inclusivity. Women empowerment in Army gets another boost, doors opened for them in artillery too

With Army opening up more opportunities to make the force gender neutral even at higher leadership positions, the first set of women officers will get commissioned into the artillery regiment towards the end of the month.

Army sources stated five officers from the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, will get commissioned into the Artillery on April 29 to battle out along with male colleagues. Another five will get the chance to join the Artillery when the next batch of officers pass out from the OTA sometime in September, the Army sources revealed.

The five women officers, after 14 years in their services, will become eligible to face the selection board for promotion to Colonel rank in the artillery. The officers do not rule out a situation that may emerge in the future where women officers get promoted to become General in Army.

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The Army has initiated a series of concurrent actions at multiple levels, like granting of Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers at par with their male counterparts, to ensure that the force swiftly transits towards inclusivity, Army officials explained.

So far, 108 women officers have been empanelled for command assignments in Colonel rank. Posting orders for the women officers in Colonel rank have been issued to tenet command assignments similar to their male counterparts.

“Approx 55% of selected women officers are commanding units deployed in field and operational areas of which 50% are in Northern and Eastern Command,” said an Army officer. However, a few of women officers, who have become Colonel, are not willing to command field units and are looking for side postings, defence ministry sources aware of developments stated.

It is learnt that their date of seniority in Colonel rank will be of the same day as their male batch mates thereby giving due cognisance to their original batch and seniority in service. The Army has clarified to the women officers that they would have ample opportunities to seek redressal to their grievances as per established policies.

Of the lot, 33 women officers who were not found fit by the Selection Board for promotion to Colonel rank have filed complaints seeking redressal, Army sources pointed out. Once they receive redress, they will be granted special review by subsequent Selection Boards, they stated.

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When the Special Selection Board was conducted for considering the women officers for command assignments, multiple policy waivers were granted for mandatory qualification (less Junior Command Course), the requirement to earn reports in command of a company, no reports earned upto 7 years by officers who had exited service and rejoined after a gap, elaborated Army officials. There was no benchmarking of merit with their male batch mates and equal promotion ratios were ensured, wherein for most batches, it was higher than their corresponding male batch.

Army sources pointed out that the women officers’ entry and climbing up the ladder would not be at the cost of vacancies for male counterparts. The government has released 150 additional vacancies, exclusively for women officers.

Whenever additional vacancies in Colonel rank are released by the Government, the Indian Army carries out reassigning of command appointments to widen command opportunities. Similar reassigning was earlier done when additional vacancies were released during the implementation of AV Singh Committee recommendations and, in 2015, when additional 141 vacancies were released to lower the age of battalion commanding officers in supporting arms.

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