Onward, Women Soldiers!

The armed forces have a golden opportunity to set an example for the rest of the nation in having empowered women join them to serve the country.

BY COL R HARIHARAN

DURING the past three decades, the traditional male orientation of the armed forces all over the world is undergoing a sex change. As more and more women don the uniform, there are visible cracks in the macho citadels of armed forces. Now they are trying to come to grips with the issue arising from this.

Historically, women have proved they are as good as men in combat. During World War II, 800,000 women served in the Soviet armed forces; nearly 70 per cent of them fought in the frontlines. But armed forces are a little reluctant to recognize this. They have been propagating “masculine values” for centuries, cultivating aggressive male persona as the essence of soldiering. So MCP attitudes are ingrained in many of their traditions. The semantic signature of the male superior attitude is visible in common military parlance. Epithets like “walking like pregnant ducks” and “bunch of school girls” continue to echo in the corridors of their hallowed chambers.

The Indian armed forces are also in the throes of this phenomenon. Recently, the Vice-Chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal PK Barbora, touched off a minor controversy when he said there were financial, operational and cultural constraints in having women fighter pilots. On the other hand, for the first time in India’s naval history, two women officers are being inducted in combatant jobs in the Naval Maritime Squadron. They will be working as observers (air borne tacticians) to manage weapons, sensors, radars and navigation on board maritime patrol aircraft.

Air Marshal Barbora was only restating the armed forces’ reservations on employing women in frontline combat roles. However, the way he put it was provocative: “if a woman gets pregnant, it will not be fruitful for either the force or her…” as training a fighter pilot costs the government Rs 11.66 crore. After spending so much, “not being able to utilize women operationally would not be a prudent thing,” he added.

Women have been serving in the Indian armed forces since World War II. But their intake as officers was only in medical, dental and nursing corps. It was in 1992 that the Indian Army opened the doors of other services for women officers and the Navy and Air Force followed suit. Since then, hairline cracks in the male bastion have widened as more and more women join the forces.

Starting with an initial intake of 50 women officers in 1992, the Army now has 1100 (3.1 per cent) of them in a total strength of 35,377 officers. This is the least among all the three services because the officer-soldier ratio in the Army is less than in the naval and air forces. The Navy has the largest presence with 750 (nearly 7 per cent) women out of a total of 10,760 officers. In the Air Force, out of a total of 7,394 officers, 300 (4.1 per cent) are women.

At present, the Army has the capacity to train 350 women cadets annually in the non-technical stream. Of course their intake in the technical stream is based upon the requirements. Women cadets undergo the same 49 weeks of training as men.
However, gender parity is a little slow in coming. Women are still not treated as equals in terms of engagement, service, and employment. Unlike men, only unmarried women can apply for commission in the Army. Women are eligible for the Short Service Commission (SSC) while their male counterparts can apply for permanent commission after five years of service. This limits the women officers’ career to 14 years of service. They have to retire at the peak of their competency, after serving as Lt Col for just one year.

Similarly, while all arms and services are open to men, at present women are commissioned only in services and in selected arms like air defence, signals, engineering and intelligence. Even then they are not allowed in close combat duties. But this has more to do with the nation’s cultural conditioning and harsh operational conditions in which the Army operates.

The problems regarding employment of women in the armed forces go well beyond the “military mindset”. They have their roots in the social and cultural environment of the country and systemic constraints of operations designed for male combatants. Assertion of gender parity is the order of the day the world over. The pill has made pregnancy optional for women. Growing consumerism is expanding the traditional role of women in the family and more women are compelled to work alongside men. The institution of marriage is no more the end-all for women and single mothers are more readily accepted in society than ever before. The Western world has come to terms with these changes more and women’s empowerment is accepted in society. And the increased presence of women in the armed forces is only a part of it. But the process is neither smooth nor complete as women are facing major problems in integrating themselves in the armed forces.

owever, these changes are yet to take place fully in our country. Despite cosmetic changes in urban India, the social and cultural environment is still loaded against women. The Indian soldier comes from rural and semi-urban areas where women are treated as second-class citizens. In many parts of the country, female foeticide and brideburning are endemic even among educated sections of society. In this environment, male chauvinism continues to retard any process which tries to bring about gender equity.

Political parties are still shy of taking up women’s issues as the centerpiece of their election campaigns. Without strong political support, women are yet to assert their rights vigorously due to lack of awareness, and caste and religious restrictions in the name of tradition. Women coming from the same social milieu opting for military service represent the small number of pioneers trying to break these barriers. So it is not surprising the armed forces are extremely cautious in handling this politically sensitive issue.

On a recent TV talk show, spirited young women, middle-aged socialites and a few men put up a strong case for allowing women soldiers to fight shoulder to shoulder with men in mixed combat units. I doubt very much whether they understood what they were saying. I am sure they would not like their daughters to be cooped up in underground shelters with a dozen or so combat soldiers at altitudes of over 14,000 ft along the borders for months at a time. There is a total lack of privacy for anyone, let alone women.

Very few countries employ a fully integrated military. Even in the US and Israel, where such integration has taken place, rape is a major menace dogging women soldiers. And it is at the hands of their male colleagues. According to Professor Helen Benedict, who has researched the subject, a survey of female veterans of the US from the Vietnam War to the first Gulf War revealed that 30 per cent were raped in the military. Another study of veterans in 2004 from Vietnam to all the subsequent wars found that 71 per cent of the women said they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military. The results of a 1992-93 study of female veterans of the Gulf War and earlier wars were even more appalling – 90 per cent said they were sexually harassed in the military.

Can our society cope with such issues when they come up in the armed forces as more women enter their portals, when even in the national capital women are not safe from sexual harassment and rape? Society’s problems are reflected in the armed forces, although military training instils discipline. So integration of women in the armed forces is going to be a long process. Society has to be more enlightened in the way it treats women if it wants the armed forces to increase the role of women on equal terms with men. And that will not happen merely by sloganeering; it has to become the political agenda of the nation.

That does not mean the armed forces should defer introduction of structural mechanisms to employ women gainfully in a safe environment both during war and peace. The armed forces, renowned for their operational management skills, have a golden opportunity to set an example for the rest of the nation in having empowered women join them to serve the country.

Courtesy: GFiles Volume 3 Issue 9 - December 2009
http://gfilesindia.com/title.aspx?title_id=52