Equal Justice in the Army

The Supreme Court's verdict on allowing the women officers to qualify for a permanent commission has been hailed as a ‘great leap’ towards equality in the Indian Armed Forces. The Permanent Commission of the Indian Armed Forces, in many spheres, has been a challenge to the masculinity of the men-dominated society.

Hyderabad:The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi stated that if only the yardstick to measure one’s power is moral strength, there is no doubt that women occupy a higher position than that of the men. Hence, it is not relevant to term them as the weaker set of all.

The Supreme Court's verdict on allowing the women officers to qualify for a permanent commission has been hailed as a ‘great leap’ towards equality in the Indian Armed Forces. The Permanent Commission of the Indian Armed Forces, in many spheres, has been a challenge to the masculinity of the men-dominated society.

Fourteen years of litigations on gender abuse in the judiciary and military forces, which left the government with the option of taking female officers into combat duty, have come to an end. The Supreme Court has rebutted the claims of the Center that most of the Jawans are from rural areas and are not mentally prepared to accept female officers in command status, and also, that women officers cannot overcome the challenges of military service due to the natural phenomenal barriers and the domestic responsibilities of the women.

The judiciary, which upheld the Center's decision in February to grant a full-time commission to the Short Service Commission (SSC) Women officers in ten divisions of the military, said that the flexibility should be applied to all the women across the departments and the Indian women military service officers in various countries.

Female soldiers in Israel have been engaging in wider combat operations since 1995 while in Germany they have been taking part from 2001, the US and Australia from 2013, and Britain from 2018 onwards.

In order to place the women in command roles, the capabilities should not be generalized just based on their gender and should specifically be noted for their individual capacities and merits, as stated by the bicameral bench of the Supreme Court and the principles of coordination laid down by the constitution. The recent Supreme court verdict is now acting as a guiding force to the efforts being put in by the Indian Army in order to meet tomorrow's challenges.

In June 2017, General Bipin Rawat, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, announced that he would make the Indian Army, which is termed as the field of men is equally opportunistic to the Indian women.

Initially, women were recruited as military policemen and later being trained in martial arts. Nirmala Sitharaman, the Defence Minister in 2018, said she was working on a unified policy on the recruitment of women in the three forces. She mentioned that while women in the Air Force were working as pilots, women in the Navy had no environment where they could get into combat confidently!!.

Needless to say, India is the world's second-largest military force - a force to be reckoned with by improving its self-efficacy! The 1950 Act, which disqualifies women into the military except in the areas specified by the notification released by the Center - closed the military for women for almost four decades.

The Center, which took women into five categories for the first time in 1992, was fighting over it for over ten years in the Delhi High Court since 2010 for giving a full-service commission to women. This controversy is brought to a closure, by the latest Supreme Court ruling, and by March next year, the first group of 100 female soldiers will complete training and join the military police.

It is imperative that women are provided with proper training and are individually capacitated based on timely warfare and comprehensive military reform to meet the needs on par with that of men!

Around 20 years ago, the Subrahmanyam Committee has been proposing on creation of the post and the appointment of the Chief Advisor to the Defence Ministry who can also act as the single and topmost authority for all the three armed-forces, infantry, air and navy. This exercise has been completed just recently and General Bipin Rawat has been posted for the position.

Even though a major portion of the central budget is allocated for meeting the needs of the Defence requirements, (which is around 3.37 lakh crores), there has been very little development in terms of obtaining modern warfare!! The Maha Daladhipathi, Bipin Rawat has recently proposed a sharpening of similar combat tactics from next year, similar to that of the 11 combat commands of the US and the 5 theatre commands of China.

Following the directions, by 2022, the composition of a major system is expected to be complete with the combined resources of the three armed-forces! In the short run, the defence sector, as Prime Minister Modi asserted in December 2015, has to change its beliefs, policies, objectives and strategies in a quantifiable manner, with respect to the military commanders!

If countries like China are reducing forces and strengthening them with technological power - India's concern for both is undermining its national security. If 83% of the military budget is spent on salaries, only 17% is left for modernization. It is doubtful whether the objectives of modernization shall be achieved by the end of December when the repatriation of the 57,000 soldiers who have been engaged in other tasks has begun!