{"id":14568,"date":"2021-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/26-03-2021\/women-in-defence\/"},"modified":"2021-03-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T00:00:00","slug":"women-in-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/26-03-2021\/women-in-defence","title":{"rendered":"Women in Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, the <strong>Supreme Court <\/strong>(SC) has highlighted that the <strong>Army\u2019s evaluation criteria for granting Permanent Commission <\/strong>(PC) <strong>to women Short Service Officers <\/strong>(SSO) have <strong>systematically discriminated<\/strong> against them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>February 2020<\/strong>, in the <strong>Secretary, Ministry of Defence versus Babita Puniya case<\/strong>, the SC had directed the government to ensure that women SSOs are given a permanent commission in the Army, including command postings.\n<ul>\n<li>It dismissed the views that women are physiologically weaker than men as a \u201csex stereotype\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>October 2020<\/strong>, the SC <strong>expressed annoyance at the hurdles faced by women officers <\/strong>on the way to permanent commission, promotion and consequential benefits.\n<ul>\n<li>It <strong>ordered the central government to grant PC to women officers<\/strong> in the Army&#8217;s non-combat support units on par with their male counterparts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Women Army officers, who were rejected for permanent commission, <strong>filed a plea pointing out flaws in the criteria<\/strong> adopted by the Army.\n<ul>\n<li>They claimed that 615 women officers of the Short Service Commission (SSC) were eligible for PC, but only 277 made it to the final list.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>SC\u2019s Stand<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>evaluation criteria<\/strong> set by the Army constitutes <strong>systemic discrimination<\/strong> against the petitioners and <strong>disproportionately affects women<\/strong> and is <strong>arbitrary and irrational<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It added that the methodology adopted for evaluation of their <strong>Annual Confidential Reports<\/strong> (ACRs) and the <strong>rigorous medical standard<\/strong> at an advanced stage of women\u2019s careers disproportionately<strong> impacts<\/strong> them.<\/li>\n<li>It also directed the government for a <strong>review of the method of evaluation of ACRs<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It causes <strong>economic and psychological harms <\/strong>and an <strong>affront<\/strong> to women\u2019s dignity.<\/li>\n<li>It has <strong>urged the government to provide relief<\/strong> to women who served as officers in the SSC of the defence forces <strong>without dragging them into litigation<\/strong> before the <strong>Armed Forces Tribunal<\/strong> (AFT).<\/li>\n<li>On the <strong>medical criteria<\/strong>, the court said it should <strong>only be seen if their fitness levels in their fifth or tenth year<\/strong> of service met the requisite standards.<\/li>\n<li>It ruled that those who were<strong> rejected on medical grounds shall be reconsidered within a month<\/strong> and that orders for the grant of PC be issued within two months.<\/li>\n<li>Officers must be<strong> considered<\/strong> for PC subject to <strong>disciplinary and vigilance clearance<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:624px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#f9cb9c; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Women\u2019s Entry in Armed Forces<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The induction of women into the officer cadre and their training was undertaken by the <strong>Officers Training Academy<\/strong> (OTA) <strong>in 1992<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Short Service Commission:<\/strong> It provides an option to women for joining the Army and serving as a <strong>Commissioned Officer<\/strong> for <strong>10\/14 years<\/strong>. After 10 years, a woman officer can <strong>either opt for a PC<\/strong> or <strong>opt-out<\/strong> or have the <strong>option of a 4 years extension<\/strong>, during which they can resign any time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Permanent Commission:<\/strong> It means a <strong>career in the Army till the retirement age<\/strong>. For PC, the <strong>entry <\/strong>is through <strong>National Defence Academy <\/strong>(NDA), Pune, <strong>Indian Military Academy<\/strong> (IMA), Dehradun and <strong>OTA<\/strong>, Gaya.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Permanent Commission for Women<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of Defence has taken steps to ensure the implementation of the grant of PC to women officers in the Armed Forces.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Indian Air Force:<\/strong> All Branches, including Fighter Pilots, are open for female officers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Indian Navy: <\/strong>All non-sea going Branches\/Cadre\/Specialisation has been opened for induction of women officers through SSC.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Indian Army:<\/strong> Women officers are granted PC in the Indian Army in all the ten branches where women are inducted for SSC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/supreme-court-permanent-commission-indian-army-navy-women-officers-7244359\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has highlighted that the Army\u2019s evaluation criteria for granting Permanent Commission (PC) to women Short Service Officers (SSO) have systematically discriminated against them. Background In February 2020, in the Secretary, Ministry of Defence versus Babita Puniya case, the SC had directed the government to ensure that women SSOs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[40,51,31,30,26],"class_list":["post-14568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-defence","tag-executive-judiciary","tag-government-policies-interventions","tag-gs-2","tag-gs-3"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/48271556268277current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}