Only woman officer in entire brigade guarding china front

By Mukesh Kaushik 

Nathu La (Indo-China border): In one of the most difficult Indian frontiers facing a formidable and assertive neighbour like China, she is the one and the only woman officer in the entire brigade at Nathu La, between India and China. She is the eyes and ears for hundreds of troops as provides them real time critical information.

Captain Swati Singh is posted in 63 Brigade of the Indian Army which is deployed in eastern sector in Sikkim near Nathu La pass overlooking China.   She is Signals incharge in the Brigade and her duty is to keep alive lines of communications for the troops posted in her area.

Captain Singh had chosen the military uniform over a very lucrative career in a multinational software company. “I was being offered a post of software engineer by Infosys, but in the meanwhile I cleared the exam of the services and without giving any second thought I opted for the later” she said proudly, in an interview to the correspondent.

She is the first generation military officer in her family of engineers. Her younger sister, an engineer like her, has opted for a private job in Larsen and Toubro. Captain Singh hails from Lucknow, a city of Nawabs from where she did her engineering in Babu Banarsi Das Institute of Technology. Her father, who works of the Central Water Board, inspired her to join the Indian Army, she said.

“I joined army two years ago and I was commissioned in 17^th Division in Sikkim. For the last one year I am in this brigade and despite being only woman officer I never felt alone or awkward here.” She said. Her Brigade Head Quarter is in Thegu near Nathu La and it takes at least five hours of bumpy motor ride to reach out to Gangtok. “Life is not easy in military but that is what I was fully aware of when I decided to join the army,” she said.

She adds, “Had I joined the Infosys, I may be serving in bustling and lively city like Bangalore but that would certainly not have given me the same kind of satisfaction I draw here while performing my duty in this inhospitable terrain.” Wishing that more and more girls should opt for joining Indian army she said, “Terrains or training may be difficult but our organisation is certainly very caring and friendly for the women officers.”   

(The correspondent was part of the official entourage of agency reporters taken to Nathu La as part of Independence Day Celebrations. Chinese Army officials had also joined the function.)

No place for women in Indian Navy's IT brigade

The armed forces opposition to induct women in combat role has been well established, but the Indian Navy has shut doors for women even in Information Technology (IT) field. The latest IT brigade to be raised by the Indian Navy to counter Chinese threat in the cyber world has no place for women. 

 First women observers of the Indian Navy (File Photo)

On July 12, the Indian Navy gave out full page advertisements in the national newspapers calling application from male computer engineers to join the specialized IT brigade, to be trained at Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala (Kerala). The advertisement did not invite applications from women computerengineers. However, for Indian Navy it is only logical.

"In this IT cadre officers will be required to be deployed on board ships and as per Navy policy no women officers could be posted on board a warship," Indian Navy official said when called to comment on it.

The first batch of the IT cadre that will commence its training in December this year will be Short Service Commission Officers and would be deployed on board warships and various sensitive establishments on shore to manage and secure the network in the organization.

Even though the armed forces inducted women officers in its ranks in 1992, they could serve only for 14 years and had to retire in their prime without any pension benefits. Unlike their male counterparts, they did not have the option of opting for Permanent Commission. It was only few years back after a long fight that the forces decided to make women permanent officers in the legal, education, accounts and naval constructor branches.

Similar to the Indian Air Force (IAF) resistance to women officers as fighter pilots and Indian Army's opposition to the women in combat roles, the Indian Navy has been against deploying women onboard warships citing design problems with its ships and submarines - the principal one being lack of separate toilets. In fact the Indian Navy had taken an initial experiment project where it posted some women officers on board warships and said it failed to take off in the absence of accommodation facilities. In contrast to this, the US Navy even has women officers Commanding their warships and even conservative countries like Malaysia also have women officers serving onboard their naval platforms.

The Indian Navy, which recently inducted women officers as "observers" (Navigator in layman's term), still does not have any women pilots for its helicopters and aircraft, unlike other two services. The present strength of women officers in the Indian Navy is 232.

Explore greater role for women: Antony tells armed forces

As the clamour to induct women in combat roles in the armed forces is increasing, Defence Minister AK Antony on Monday asked the armed forces to explore more avenues to woman in services. 

 

Even though the armed forces have been inducting women as Short Service Commissioned (SSC) officers, there has been resistance within the services to give them a combat role. It was only a couple of years back that the forces decided to make women permanent officers in the legal, education, accounts and naval constructor branches.

In his meeting with the three service chiefs – Admiral Nirmal Verma, General VK Singh and Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne – Antony “directed the three Chiefs to explore more avenues for giving permanent commission to women in the Armed forces”.

The present strength of women officers in the three services of the Armed Forces is - Army 1055, Air Force 936 and Navy 232. According to figures available, there has been a 67 per cent increase in recruitment of women officers into the army, navy and air force since 2009. As many as 781 women joined the armed forces as officers during this period. The army alone inducted 343 women, the navy 129 and the air force 309. These figures do not include the women officers joining the armed forces medical services.

In 2006 Delhi-based Integrated Defence Staff had carried out a study for giving greater role for women officers and the report was submitted in 2011 recommending against giving fighting duties to women.

India’s neighbours - Pakistan and China – have already commissioned women fighter pilots in its forces. However, the Indian Armed Forces have been against the idea of women in combat roles citing social and cultural fabric of the country. According data available in open domain, the US has about 3,700 fighter pilots and 70 of them are women. Many of these women fighter pilots had even flown bombing missions over Afghanistan in 2001.

The Indian Navy also recently started having women officers as "observers" and still does not have any women pilots for its helicopters and aircraft. The force does not even post its women officers on board warships after its initial experiment project failed to take off in the absence of accommodation facilities for women. (Read the story I did in 2009 Indian Navy learns from Nations with women onboard warships).

For the Indian Army it is still the question of a woman commanding the troops - majority of which comes from the Indian hinterland- where taking orders from the fairer sex is not the norm. Also the force has cited the living accommodation for women in forward areas a huge logistical and practical problem.

Indian Army's women officers summit Mt Everest

Base Camp of Mount Everest:  Four Women Officers and six Gentlemen Soldiers of the Indian Army proudly stood on the summit of Mount Everest earlier today and unfurled the National and Indian Army flags on the highest peak in the world in the early hours of 25 May 2012, an ascent that came after a spell of inclement weather and abandoned summit bids of other expeditions.

The final push for the summit began around 7 pm on 24 May 2012 from Camp 4 famously known as the South Col, with the first of the climbers arriving at their destination about nine hours later.

“Sir, we’ve done it,” were the first words from Captain Namrata Rathore to Colonel Ajay Kothiyal the leader of the expedition from the summit. The other Women officers who reached the summit were Major N. Linyu, Capt. Deepika Rathore and Capt. Smitha. Maj N Linyu was the first Woman climber of the team to reach the summit. The team was led by Major R. S. Jamwal (Deputy leader of the team). Subedar Rajender Jalal, Havaldar Sherab Palden, Havildar Praveen Thapa, Havildar Chander Bahadur Thapa and Lance Havildar Sudhir Singh were the other members who successfully scaled the peak.

Subedar Jalal, a veteran mountaineer who has already scaled five eight thousand meter peaks and also Mt Everest in 2003 became the first Indian to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain without oxygen.

The team was divided into two summit teams. Team-I comprising of five officers (including four women officers), one Junior Commissioned Officer and four Non Commissioned Officers successfully summitted the peak on 25 May 2012.  Team-II comprising of four officers (including three women officers), two Junior Commissioned Officers and two Non Commissioned Officers will attempt the summit in early hours of  26 May 2012.

“I am proud of our women and men who refused to give up,” Deputy Chief of the Army Staff  Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali Deputy Chief of the Army Staff. 

“Our Expedition team have made the Indian army and the country proud by being determined to achieve their goal of reaching the summit of the world’s highest mountain despite all the odds and inclement weather of the past few weeks,” said Lt Gen SP Tanwar, Director General of Military Training.

“The first attempt on the summit from 20 May 2012 onwards was hampered by bad weather that included strong winds which prompted us to make a strategic decision to postpone the summit.” said the team leader  Col Ajay Kothiyal.

…. As she stood on the Roof of the World

New Delhi, June 10, 2011: It was literally a Himalayan wait for her! She reached the peak of the Mt. Everest, but the national and the Indian Air Force (IAF) flags she had to hoist there were with her team member who caught up with her only after an hour.

 

Nonetheless as Flight Lieutenant Nivedita stood on the Roof of the World, as Mt. Everest is being called as, on May 21^st she created history by becoming the first IAF woman officer to set foot on the mountain top. Nearly an hour after her another teammate Cpl Raju reached the summit with the flags and both of them hoisted the tricolour and the Air Force flag on the top.

For this girl from the quaint town of Jhunjhunu from Rajasthan, the scene from the top of the Mt Everest is etched in her memory forever.

“When I reached the summit I kept standing for one minute. Then I anchored myself and kneeled down towards the peak,” said Nivedita while describing her most memorable moment to The New Indian Express. What sweetened her achievement was the fact that she had beaten all her teammates by a good one hour margin to reach the top first.

Mt. Everest at 8,848 metres is the highest mountain in the world. What makes scaling the peak more difficult is the nearly absence of oxygen as one climbs up, the unfathomable crevasses, unannounced blizzards and bone chilling temperatures.

Talking about her “amazing” feat, Nivedita added, “It was a surreal experience. Only peaks of the mountains above 8,000 metres are visible when you are on the top of Mt. Everest. Then there is a layer of clouds.”

An engineer from Jaipur and a first to get into services from her family, Nivedita was commissioned into the IAF as a navigator for the transport workhorse An-32s. It was on 2009 that she set her eyes on Mt. Everest. The journey was not an easy one.

“The training has been very grueling. In the morning for three hours we used to do weight training followed by two hours of endurance run,” said Nivedita.

In fact, Nivedita’s mental toughness and physical stamina to scale Mt. Everest also took her team leader Group Captain NK Dahiya by surprise. Recalling the day, Dahiya said, “I was lying half dozing in my Summit Camp tent at South Col, holding the radio set in anxiety. Finally the radio crackled. Cutting through the noise of summit winds came in Nivedita’s voice- ‘Sir I am on the Summit’. The overflow of emotions was evident in her voice.”

“She surely had surprised me by beating even Cpl Raju Sindhu, the gentle giant of the team, to the summit by almost an hour,” Dahiya said.

Four days later the two were followed by six more teammates including three women officers – Squadron Leader Nirupama Pandey, Flight Lieutenant Rajika Sharma and Flt Lt Deepika Rao.

The first men team of IAF had scaled Mt. Everest in 2005. The achievement of these four women officers would definitely pave way for greater representation for females in the armed forces.