Breaking through troposphere

On Friday, Avani Chaturvedi, Mohana Singh and Bhawna Kanth etched their names in India’s military history. Hailing from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar, the states not exactly in the top bracket for their sensitivity to the girl child, the three officers have become the Indian Air Force’s first-ever batch of women fighter pilots. In the process they have demolished quite a few myths that guarded the entry of women in the sword arms of the Indian military. Women were allowed to trundle helicopters and transport planes or join the medical and ordnance wings. But the paternalistic mindset of protecting the fairer sex from harm prevented the induction of women in combat in all the three services.

The naysayers had probably not heard of Amelia Earhart. Nearly a century after she disappeared, Amelia lives on as a reminder that the spirit of adventure and risk taking is not the preserve of men alone. Or Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, captured and released by the Russians. Her consistent defiance in custody turned her into a national hero and a parliamentarian. Down the ages, women have distinguished themselves in combat, from our homegrown Rani of Jhansi to the YPJ, the all-women Kurdish military wing, which were more than a match for the dreaded ISIS. 

Chaturvedi, Singh and Kanth will undertake operational sorties on Sukhois and MiGs next year. They would do well to remember the steadfastness of the much maligned political class in bringing down the gender barrier. Successive Defence Ministers, especially AK Antony and Manohar Parrikar, as also President Pranab Mukherjee (who has also served as Defence Minister) patiently countered the reservations harboured by the male leadership of the armed forces. The three women combat officers do not amount to much in the Indian armed forces. But a breach has been made. Parrikar has promised to usher a similar “golden letter day” in the Navy and the Army as well. This will require successive political regimes to display the same determination in sweeping away the cobwebs of doubt on inducting women as fighter pilots.