When it comes to harassment and discrimination of women officers in the country's armed forces, the Air Force has the worst record. Atleast, that is what the figures on the number of complaints registered in the last few years indicate.
When it comes to harassment and discrimination of women officers in the country's armed forces, the Air Force has the worst record. Atleast, that is what the figures on the number of complaints registered in the last few years indicate.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar told Lok Sabha on Friday that while 17 women officers of Air Force registered such complaints since 2011, the same in Army since 2013 has been five.
The Navy, on the other hand, has registered no complaint in recent past, he informed while replying to a question. However, notably, a young woman naval officer of the Eastern Naval Command at Visakhapatnam had quit Navy in 2014 after accusing one of her superiors of harassing her. The Navy had then said that the accused officer was suitably punished after an inquiry.
The number of women in the Indian armed forces is meagre. The Air Force has a total strength of close to 1,27,000, the Navy nearly 60,000 personnel and Army the largest at close to 13,25,000.
However, the women strength in Air Force is 1,331 with the force adding a mere 248 personnel since 2012. The strength of women personnel in the Army stands at 1,436 even as it added 285 more since 2012 while the Navy has only 525 women personnel after it added 140 since 2012.
The latest information on harassment of women officers comes in the wake of the rising demand from women personnel of the armed forces for joining the combat roles. As of now, besides the combat operations, women are not deployed as fighter pilots in Air Force and on naval warships. A high-level tri-services committee in 2011 and a study by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff in 2006 have recommended against induction of women in combat roles.
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