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Uniform opportunity for women in uniform, please

Officers respond to Army Chief General Bipin Rawat's hesitation to induct women in combat roles

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(Retd) Captain Sumisha Shankar who served as a Logistics Officer says there is a lack of clarity in the policy
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In his first Annual Press Conference after taking over as Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat addressed the issue of women in combat roles and said, "If we induct women into combat role, they will have to share equal responsibility as their male counterparts because equal opportunity must come with equal responsibility." Many women officers and feminists believe that Rawat's presumption of a woman's inability or unwillingness to accept responsibility was rather sexist.

One wonders what's holding the Army back — the Navy is changing its ways and reconsidering its ban on women officers on warships; the Air Force is finally recruiting women fighter pilots (even Afghanistan is doing this, what took us so long?)!

"Women who sign up to join the armed forces know what they are getting into," says (Retd) Lt Sandhya Suri. "When I joined, there were just two women on my ship and 250 gentlemen officers and sailors. We women had to work 10 times as hard to prove ourselves as 'officers in uniform' and not just 'ladies' and we accepted the challenge." Suri joined the Navy in 1994 and served as a Logistics Officer on a warship before the ban on women was instituted. "We are not asking you to lower your standards. Keep the same criteria for both men and women and if we qualify, please accept that we deserve to be there alongside the men," asserts Suri.

General Rawat courted further controversy when he brought up 'sanskaari' excuses like non-availability of toilets and 'special' sleeping arrangements women on patrol duty will need on the frontline. He said that male officers slept under the tank while on tank duty, and on patrol duty, everyone would just pull out a blue sheet and sleep under it. He asked women to 'take a call' on such issues.

(Retd) Commander Prasanna Edayilliam, who served 14 years in the Navy, counters, "These are just stalling tactics. Women can improvise when required. We can also 'go' in the forest like men do. Women can dig a ditch can't they? Solutions are simple, but mindset of men needs to change first. Have you never heard of portable tents or sleeping bags?" These are both collapsible and can be carried in the backpacks that tank and patrol crews carry.

"The argument is always about accommodation and toilets," insists Suri. "Sometimes they bring up menstruation. Has anyone ever questioned our competence at handling weapons or our leadership skills?" Suri believes that these are just excuses; the real problem lies with men being unable to accept women working alongside them in what has hitherto been an exclusive male bastion. "Men need to stop playing daddies who need to protect women or keep an eye on what they are doing," insists Suri.

However, (Retd) Captain Sumisha Shankar who joined the Army in 2003 and served as a Logistics Officer, says that there is a lack of clarity on the policy level itself which needs to be addressed first. "How women are inducted and how promotions are decided upon can often be ambiguous, making it difficult for women to be evaluated at par with men using the same standards, and that is a huge bone of contention," she says. "Plus there is the matter of policy when it comes to pregnancy and maternity leave. These things need to be addressed today for women who are in non-combat or support roles, before we can think about what to do about women in combat."

So, if the Army truly wants to take an equal-opportunity initiative, perhaps they need to start at policy level instead of asking women whether they are up to the challenge.

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