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| Women in uniform | | Need for balancing career and family | |
by G.S. Bedi
Women have been inducted into the Indian armed forces since 1992-93 only as short service commissioned officers. Whereas the Navy and the Air Force have reasonably integrated them into their cadres, the Army still seems to be having certain teething problems.
There are 918 lady officers in the army in the support units of Engineers, Signals, Army Service Corps, Ordnance, EME, Education, Intelligence and Judge Advocate General’s branch.
This issue has come into sharp focus in the wake of the unfortunate suicide of Lieutenant Susmita Chakraborty and the subsequent remarks of the Army Vice Chief about the low comfort level with lady officers in the Army units and that the Army "could do without them" in certain roles.
Beleaguered by women organisations, the Army did some quick fire-fighting by making some politically correct statements. This may save the day for the Army for the present, but it will not do so in the long run unless it takes substantial remedial measures without any further loss of time.
Unfortunately, instead of tracing the root cause of women’s problems, the focus is being shifted to "the suitability or otherwise of women for combat arms."
Dismal scenarios of women soldiers suffering brutal indignities at the hands of enemy are being painted to scare away women from joining the Army. This is disservice to the Army and the nation as a whole.
The problems of lady officers in the Army are essentially human resource development (HRD) and management problems. Women are psychologically and physically different from men and, therefore, have peculiar problems.
The US, the UK and other NATO armies, who have extensive experience of employing women in combat as well as non-combat roles, take care of them adequately by assigning them only those jobs in the units which are considered suitable for them.
For example in combat units, they are not employed on the positions where they are required to "close in with the enemy and kill him in direct firing or hand-to-hand combat." In the British Army Royal Artillery, more women are employed in signaling and command post work than on gun lines.
"Allowable discretion" in the employment of women in the interest of enhancing the combat effectiveness is another concept in practice.
No such positions have been identified in our Army. Had it been done, Lt. Susmita Chakraborty, a postgraduate in chemistry with gold medal, would not have been tasked to lead a Motor Transport (MT) convoy from Udhampur to Srinagar and back. Every seasoned Army Supply Corps (ASC) officer knows that leading an MT convoy is the toughest job in an ASC battalion and is always assigned to an experienced young officer.
This assignment, naturally, led to work-related depression in her. Let these positions be now identified by the Military Secretary’s branch. Assigning jobs as per one’s capabilities and aptitude leads to increased job satisfaction.
When the lady officers were first inducted 14 years ago, Army Headquarters simply issued a set of guidelines on how to treat the lady officers in the units without organising any sensitisation training or making any provisions for basic amenities for them at the unit level.
The thrust of these guidelines was on "no favour to be shown to lady officers." These guidelines though proved very useful in the units, but in the absence of sensitisation training or amplifying provisions regarding jobs to be assigned to women, threw the concept of chivalry out of the window and gave rise to petty grudging rivalries and jealousies between the male and female officers in the units.
As regards the basic amenities to the lady officers, the lesser said the better. In this regard the first lady officer commissioned in the Army, Major Priya Jhingan had this to say in an article published in a leading newspaper a few years back, "In my first posting at Ahmedabad, there was only one toilet and I had to share it with other male officers, but that didn’t bother me ." The situation is no different in certain units in the Army even today.
Marriage, pregnancy and motherhood are great events to look forward to in a woman’s life. But, the army considers them problems. In an interview to The Hindustan Times, the Vice Chief said the tendency among women officers to plan marriage soon after getting commissioned was causing problems. These events being predictable should not cause problems. The American and British armies have kept adequate manning margins to cater to these events.
In those armies when a woman becomes pregnant she is placed into particular medical category so that she does not have to attend morning physical training exercises and evening games or parades. We have no such provisions. It is only left to the compassionate nature of the senior officers to grant excuse from such parades.
Even our own Navy looks after maternity and motherhood generously. This is what one of the naval lady officers has to say, "For my confinement I got six months leave. It was so comfortable for me and my child. In fact I delivered on duty and took leave after discharge. Raising children is no problem."
No wonder almost every one in the Navy is completing 14 years. In case of the Army, some of the senior officers are reluctant to grant six months leave, a combination of two months of maternity, two months of annual and two months of furlough leave. There is a need for the issue of necessary guidelines in this regard.
Fortunately, the cases of sexual harassment in our Army are few and far between, thanks to the ethos and value system of our society. Nevertheless, stringent systems must be in place to deal with the cases of sexual harassment.
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