DNA Explainer: What girls in Sainik Schools will mean for women in Indian Army

On Sunday, August 15, marking the occasion of India’s 75^th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that all Sainik schools in the country will admit girl cadets.

The PM said, “I used to get messages from lakhs of women children that they want to study in Sainik schools. Today, the government has decided that doors of every Sainik School will now be open for the girl child.”

The announcement comes on the back of a successful pilot that took place in one Sainik School in Mizoram’s Chhingchhip, which started admitting girl cadets in the academic session 2018-19.

We must ensure that women have equal representation in every sphere with a feeling of security.

Recently, we started an experiment in Mizoram of opening Sainik Schools for girls.

Hereon, doors of every Sainik School will now be open for our girl child: PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/jdWcPXdmb4

— BJP (@BJP4India) August 15, 2021

What are Sainik Schools and how they contribute to the Indian Army

Operated by the Sainik Schools Society, these schools are under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence. The idea behind Sainik Schools was to set up establishments that prepares future Army personnel from a young age. The idea for establishing such schools was pitched by statesman VK Krishna Menon, a close Nehru aid and India’s Defence Minister between 1957 and 1962.

33 Sainik Schools are currently operational across Indian states. Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number with three Sainik Schools while several states including Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh have two each. 

Admission to Sainik Schools is achieved through an All-India Sainik School Entrance Examination (AISSEE). The schools impart education under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum. Admissions to class 6 and class 9 are done on the basis of this entrance test. For cadets joining from class 11, the criteria is marks obtained in the Board exams in class 10.

The rules and protocols of Sainik Schools are in line with the strict regimens followed by military academies.

While there are 33 such establishments currently, the Indian government plans to expand the Sainik School footprint across the country.

A new scheme to set up more such schools under a public-private collaboration, was revealed during a March 2021 Lok Sabha session by Shripad Naik, the Minister of State for Defence. The minister had also revealed that all Sainik Schools will be opened to girl cadets for admission from the academic session, 2021-2022.

In the Budget 2021, the Union Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman had revealed that the government plans to establish 100 new Sainik Schools under the scheme.

What the move means for women in the Indian Army

The move to admit girl cadets at Sainik Schools all across India comes as part of the government’s push to increase the participation of women in the Indian armed forces.

In 2020, PM Modi had announced that women officers in the armed forces who joined via the short service commission (SSC) route, will be given the option to apply for permanent commission in the army. In 2021, permanent commission was granted to 424 out of the 615 women officers who were considered.

Before this, the Indian Army had only 85 women officers in its ranks, as per information received by a leading media house via an RTI. Furthermore, there are no women officers commanding major units in the Indian Army.

The gender ratio stands around 0.56 percent women in the Indian Army. Minus the medical wing where women have served in the army for decades, the institution has 6,807 women officers in its ranks.

Sainik Schools typically provide 25 to 30 percent of the officer cadets who join the National Defence Academy (NDA). As more and more girl cadets join and pass out from Sainik Schools in the coming years, their representation among Indian Army officers will shoot up.

As of July 2021, more than 90,000 posts are vacant in the Indian Army while there is a shortage of 7,900 officers.

In this scenario, the move from the central government can be expected to tackle both the gender disparity and personnel shortage in the Armed forces.