'Peeping men, maternity leave': Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat cites difficulties in putting women in combat role

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Saturday cited several reasons to argue why it was difficult in assigning women to frontline combat role. 

"Our orders are that a lady officer will get a hut in the COB, then there are orders that we have to cocoon her separately. She will say somebody is peeping, so we will have to give a sheet around her," Rawat said in an interview to CNN News 18. 

Rawat questioned whether a women officer with commanding responsibilities can stay away from her post for long. "I am ready, it is not that army is not ready (for combat role for the women). Will she command? Ok, so now I make her a commanding officer. She is commanding a battalion.

"Do I put a restriction on her to say that in that command tenure you will not be given maternity leave? If I say that, there will be ruckus created, he added. 

He said that in frontline combat there are risks of officers getting killed.

"See, I am not saying a woman who has children doesn't die. She can also die in a road accident. But in combat, when body bags come back, our country is not ready to see that," Rawat said. 

He added that there are women officers engaged in exercises like mining and de-mining operations and also manning the air defence system.

"We have women officers as engineers, they are doing mining and demining work. In air defence, they are manning our weapon systems. But we have not put women in frontline combat because what we are engaged in right now is a proxy war, like in Kashmir," he said.

'Army to increase intake of women in more non-combat roles'

Rawat said the  Indian Army proposed to increase intake of women in more non-combat roles such as interpreters and cyber specialists.

Besides, it also was mulling recruiting women for the military police, he told reporters in Hyderabad on the sidelines of the combined graduation parade at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal on the city outskirts.

"We are saying, we are going to increase the intake. Women are already there in the Army. We are now going to take them more into some other cadres gradually, we are expanding the Indian Army to women officers," he said.

Women were there in the legal and education areas already and the army wanted interpreters, cyber specialists, people in the information warfare domain and in accounts and audit services, the General said, replying to a question about Army increasing intake of women.

"I am also looking at women jawans in the military police.

Women joining as soldiers in the military police service and then we will see whether there is any scope for expansion later," the army chief said.

Earlier last month, speaking on the sidelines of the Passing Out Parade of the 135th course at the National Defence Academy in Pune, Gen. Rawat had said the army was not yet ready to have women in combat roles.

(With PTI inputs)