Guts, Grit and Glory | Women Are Here

Maj. Gen. Raj Mehta (retd)

Masters of Their Fate; The Captains of Their Souls, this memorable quote from Invictus—Latin for unconquered—could well be the unspoken words of our women in uniform. So feels this writer with conviction; given his extensive experience with uniformed women in the war zone in J&K and elsewhere during his almost 39 years in uniform and as a veteran. Invictus is an apt and achievable metaphor which best describes the spirit, pugnacity, determination and military capability of our uniformed women officers and enlisted women soldiers as well as women aspirants seeking exciting and fulfilling permanent careers in the army.

The male dominated army should thus graciously accept reality and facilitate their melding into the army’s famed ethic and ethos of Service Before Self and Naam-Namak-Nishan with the practical caution that we may hasten slowly with such integration by first preparing the army environment wisely for this revolutionary change to take place.

Such a new beginning is necessary because women across ranks have faced a barrage of gender led criticism and cynicism from a section of serving and veteran rank and file in the army environment questioning their physical and mental suitability for a permanent career in the army via the NDA/ IMA/ OTA and Corps of Military Police (CMP) establishments; their ability to command male dominated soldiery including in combat.

This simmering unease got an unpleasant fillip post the landmark Supreme Court interim rulings of 18 August 2021-22 September 2021 which irrevocably made women eligible for grant of Permanent Commission and for Command assignments besides permitting them to appear in the November 2021 NDA examination for June 2022 NDA entry at par with male candidates. RIMC entry is also close to approval by the Supreme Court as a follow up to women’s entry into NDA. It may be noted that women’s entry into Sainik Schools was earlier approved; these schools being feeding establishments for NDA.

There is however a positive side best exhibited by the speed and efficiency with which the Supreme Court rulings are being carried institutionally and dynamically carried out by the military hierarchy and NDA despite the gender led social media debate against women’s suitability and equally spirited defence of their ability to meet all challenges if perceived gender mindsets change and get attuned to the new realities.

Selected women among the unprecedented 1,78,000 female aspirants who appeared for the NDA entrance examination in November 2021 will join their male colleagues at NDA in June 2022; a development which may be termed a revolution in uniformed women’s employment; a Tipping Point in the world’s third largest Army ‘born in battle’ in 1947 and which remains operationally committed but which is plagued by crippling shortage of almost 10,000 officers over decades. In addition, women’s entry as enlisted Military Policewomen with the first batch of 83 women soldiers already posted to 11 Army units after a year long, tough training is as much an unprecedented revolution in women’s employment in the Army which also needs celebration.

The Male ‘Mindset

Notwithstanding the fact that what women take as mindset is seen as conviction by substantial numbers of men in uniform, the male view is centred around women’s perceived weaknesses in physical and mental capabilities to cope with the stresses of hostile terrain, adverse climate, zero-facility operational environment and ‘follow me’ leadership traits necessary to command men in battle besides handling women’s genetic abhorrence to killing. Globally men have nursed the belief that war is primarily a male domain and women if permitted to operate in or take command in war will be found wanting; not least because their physiology and attendant demands on privacy/demands from Motherhood at a time when command assignments open up, invokes unacceptable conditionality’s not conducive to operational efficiency.

There is also a feeling that their presence will serve to seriously distract men, degrading unit cohesion besides inviting instinctive attitudes in men to “protect” them from injury/enemy depredations including capture/molestation. In so protecting them, men will stray from their allotted mission to the detriment of unit ability to fight and win against a determined enemy besides putting strain on stretched operational logistics. The direct fallout of such male convictions is their belief that women are best suited to look after combat support tasks well away from the war zone and close combat.

Some officers serving and veterans in social media see the perceived ‘judicial activism’ and rulebook interpretation of various statutes of the Constitution as open to military interpretation and reality checks. They feel most activists and equal rights promoters are unfamiliar with war, its conduct and many uncertainties and command challenges. This is with special reference to grant of permanent commission to women in combat arms and their route to such commission via the NDA/ IMA which—especially NDA are considered sacrosanct as exclusively ‘male’ preserves. Ironically, they have (had) no issue if women granted permanent commission into ‘combat support’ Arms and Services are commissioned ex OTA as has been the case since 1992.

Responses from Women Officers

These, with notable exceptions, are led by strong disdain for the influence of Manu led patriarchy which they see as patronising male ‘mindsets’ even as there are refreshing inputs by some female respondents into EQ led—therefore mindset free—space which accepts gender-neutral realities as well as show the way ahead out of the current unseemly impasse. It is this writer’s opinion that a silent section of male officers/ army establishment rank holders including senior officers also belong to this welcome space especially those in the veteran community. Their voices need to be heard to give a gender neutral veneer to the current often lop-sided debates in the publ