ThePrint | Indian Navy is opening submarine doors to women, but it must navigate crewing challenges

Some cultures, such as the French, Portuguese, and Italian, consider ships to be masculine, while the Germans use ‘it’, in the neuter gender. But in India and other parts of the world, a ship is referred to in the feminine gender. An explanation, supposedly rendered in a humorous vein, is more naughty than nautical—the first thing a ship does on arriving at a port is to make it for the ‘buoys’! It is perhaps not surprising that among the three Services of the Indian Armed Forces, it is the Navy that is at the forefront of inducting women and projecting ‘nari shakti’. Recently, the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Hari Kumar, envisioned the Navy’s aspiration of having a woman as its chief within the next 30-35 years. Read the full article here.

Indian Army must work on inducting women in combat roles

The presence of women in combat roles is a matter of mindset, and what better place to change it than the Indian Army?The issue for the Army to ponder is not whether women can be inducted into combat roles, but how to make it happen. Otherwise, it is a matter of time before India’s legal system forces the Army’s hand. It has already done so in the case of granting a permanent commission to women. Moreover, the IAF has already inducted three women fighter pilots and the Indian Navy recently confirmed that induction of women as sailors was under consideration.Arguably, the field conditions in the Army are much more rugged and proximity to comrades and adversary poses greater challenges. But the point is that if women volunteer despite these challenges, the Army should not resist. The cultural argument put forward by the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) that the rank and file, who are mostly of rural origin, may not be ready to accept a woman as their officer could be true but is surely not an immutable condition.Read more here:https://theprint.in/opinion/indian-army-must-work-on-inducting-women-in-combat-roles-or-court-may-force-its-hand/165252/