Editorial: Smashing the glass ceiling

SC ruling allowing women to sit for NDA entrance for entry into the Army is path-breaking

It’s yet another triumph for those fighting for gender equality. The Supreme Court ruling allowing women to sit for the National Defence Academy (NDA) entrance exam for entry into the Army is a path-breaking development and a game-changer in eliminating gender discrimination. The need for throwing open the NDA test to women was long overdue. The apex court’s directive must prompt policymakers to shed their resistance to gender equality. In the Indian context, the Army has been more reluctant than the Air Force and the Navy to fully accommodate women officers in its ranks. The armed forces, like any other organisation, would do well to accept that women are in no way inferior to men in performing the mandated tasks in any field and that gender neutrality should be non-negotiable. It is time for the forces to adapt themselves towards a compatible co-educational ethos and infrastructure for women in all their institutes of training. At present, there are only 0.56% women officers in the Army, 1.08% in the Air Force and 6.5% in the Navy in the 1.4 million-strong armed forces. Often, certain hackneyed arguments are made to keep women out of the Army — physical constraints, family responsibilities, low acceptance in leadership roles, vulnerability to sexual and other harassment and lack of infrastructure. Such arguments lack merit and are totally unjustified, reflecting an inherent institutional bias. Since the induction of women into the Army in 1992 as officers, there has been little evidence of women seeking any special treatment at workplaces.

Excluding women from taking the NDA test amounts to violation of the broad intent of last year’s orders of the Supreme Court, allowing permanent commission to women officers. The new order must be widely publicised so that all eligible and aspiring women candidates could compete for recruitment as cadet officers. The NDA must be made gender-inclusive by creating new infrastructure and providing the required training standards. This will make the armed forces better and stronger. It must be pointed out that the changing nature of warfare has brought in new set challenges for the armed forces that go beyond physical fitness. Technical expertise, decision-making skills and mental resilience have become important prerequisite for the officers. On all these counts, women are in no way inferior to men. The apex court’s latest ruling is a logical step forward after it directed the Centre last year to grant permanent commission to women in the Navy and Army. This was a long-pending demand to ensure gender justice. However, the implementation of this progressive measure had hit a roadblock with the Army top brass invoking flimsy grounds to deny permanent commission to the women officers inducted through Short Service Commission.

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