{"id":6287,"date":"2020-02-12T18:01:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T12:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=6287"},"modified":"2020-02-12T18:01:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T12:31:44","slug":"role-of-women-in-armed-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/role-of-women-in-armed-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"Role of women in armed forces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Relevance: Sociology: Paper II:Systems of Kinship in India:\u00a0Patriarchy, entitlements and sexual division of labour &amp; Mains: G.S paper I: Society: Women Empowerment<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/women-officers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-6288\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/women-officers-1024x569.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"810\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/women-officers-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/women-officers-150x83.jpg 150w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/women-officers-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/women-officers-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/women-officers.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Context:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case for grant of equivalence in allowing posts of commanding officers to women in the armed forces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What are the arguments behind?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The issue of bringing women into the armed forces has been contentious for some time, despite Nirmala Sitharaman batting strongly for equality for women, when she was defence minister.<br \/>\n\u2022 The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case for grant of equivalence in allowing posts of commanding officers to women in the armed forces.<br \/>\n\u2022 The government submitted an affidavit, laying out its justification for the alleged unsuitability of women officers to discharge this role: \u201cPsychological limitations\u201d, lower physical standards, domestic obligations and absence due to pregnancy.<br \/>\n\u2022 The government argued that the \u201ccomposition of rank and file being male predominantly drawn from the rural background with prevailing societal norms, troops are not yet mentally schooled to accept women officers in command of units\u201d.<br \/>\n\u2022 Stretching the argument even further to exclude women, it argued that \u201cThe non-linear battlefield has rendered the erstwhile rear areas as much vulnerable as battlefield.<br \/>\n\u2022 Therefore, the induction of women officers into the Indian Army, hithertofore a male bastion, needs to be viewed in the perspective of the changed battlefield environment\u201d.<br \/>\n\u2022 The arguments are regressive and do not meet the yardstick for progressive and liberal values that any modern society ought to aspire for.<br \/>\n\u2022 The government\u2019s arguments reopen a debate which had been closed nearly three decades ago, when the women officers were first inducted into the armed forces.<br \/>\n\u2022 All the arguments put forth against giving women more responsibility have been answered by the armed forces by giving women greater responsibility in uniform.<br \/>\n\u2022 The IAF has allowed women to become fighter pilots, and the Army has sent them to tough UN peacekeeping missions globally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>The arguments are not only wrong, they are also misplaced:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The current case in the Supreme Court is not about granting a role to women in combat arms but about the denial of equal opportunity in their existing roles for promotion to higher commands.<br \/>\n\u2022 Women officers are already commanding platoons and companies successfully, with male soldiers accepting orders from them as part of a professional force.<br \/>\n\u2022 A professional force does not discriminate on the basis of gender, it works because of training, norms and culture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Way ahead:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is no need to give women any special dispensations but the government cannot promote discrimination on the basis of gender.<br \/>\n\u2022 It must move towards gender mainstreaming in the army, and further achieve gender equality by establishing professional standards and adhering to them without any bias.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance: Sociology: Paper II:Systems of Kinship in India:\u00a0Patriarchy, entitlements and sexual division of labour &amp; Mains: G.S paper I: Society:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,7,13,114,116],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-6287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-general-studies-i","category-society-and-social-issues","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-ii","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6289,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287\/revisions\/6289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}