In recent years, there has been animated debate in the media and certainly within the uniformed fraternity, about the efficacy of having women officers in the armed forces in the first place, leave alone carrying the additional liability of giving them a permanent commission. Whereas there have been some recent, well informed comments about the work charter that women could handle well in the Services, so as to make more men available for tasks that relate to close quarter combat {for which women, by their own volition, may be physiologically hesitant if not ill suited}, most references to women have been derogatory; at best condescending.
The criticism understandably focuses around the physiological liabilities women inherently carry; their suspected lack of mental and physical toughness and ‘killer instinct' to cope with a war like environment, their genetic maternal instinct that carries the penalty of long lay offs and the administrative need to create a special living and working environment including logistics for them that gives them privacy, freedom from unwanted attention or sexual harassment and physical security. The hardcore, unrepentant ‘men only' lobby also points out the risk of women officers serving as a distraction for both officers and men who may be far away from their own families and the resultant negative impact on their discipline and morale due to close proximity to these women officers.
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A woman officer adjutant taking
a report from a male subordinate |
Substantial Indian opinion is undoubtedly biased against the employment of women in uniform because people feel women are physically unfit for the hardships involved in the job. But my own experience of mentoring several women officers has convinced me that women are competent and can even outperform men in most jobs provided they are given a level playing field. They bring in special values in whatever responsibility they are assigned. They humanize the working environment; they bring in hard work, sincerity and high level of integrity and commitment. They are credible if not top class, role model communicators because in their role as mothers they instinctively know how to teach and pass on values to an entire generation.
Women are skilled at multi-tasking; something most men are distinctly uncomfortable with. The civilisational lesson through the entire run of history has been that a nation can be called advanced and progressive only if it learns to respect its women and give them their due place in society which is shoulder-to-shoulder with their men.
