Indian Army has 1733 female officers: MoS Defence

Srinagar, July 31: The Ministry of Defence, Government of India (GoI) on Monday said that around 1733 officers in the Indian Army were female, noting that the major initiatives have been taken to increase the number of women in the Indian Army.

This was stated by the Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Defence, Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to a query raised by the Member Parliament Sandosh Kumar P in the Lok Sabha.

He had sought details about the number of women in medical and non-medical cadres of the Indian Army.

In his reply, the MoS Defence said around 1212 females were in Army Medical Corps (AMC) while the number of females in Army Dental Corps (ADC) was 168 and 3841 women were working in Military Nursing Service (MNS).

“The total number of women officers in the Indian Army (excluding AMC, ADC and MNS) as on January 1 of 2023 is 1733. The major initiatives are underway to increase the number of women in the Indian Army,” he said.

Briefing about the initiatives, the MoS in his written reply said that 20 vacancies for Women Army cadets per year have been allotted in National Defence Academy, Pune from July 2022.

“Short Service Commission has 90 vacancies for women including 10 additional vacancies increased from June, 2023,” the reply reads.

The MoS Defence said that approval has been given, since March, 2023, for induction of women officers into Artillery units, Remount and Veterinary Corps while entry of Women officers as pilots in Army Aviation has commenced from June 2021.

“Enrolment of women as other Ranks in the Corps of Military Police in the Indian Army has commenced since 2019,” he said.

The MoS Defence said that the different ministries were mandated to have an Internal Committee, under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013.

“Internal Complaint’s Committees for prevention of sexual harassment of women at workplace are functional in all forces, PSUs, Ordnance Boards, Autonomous Bodies, Subordinate offices and all other organisations under Ministry of Defence,” the MoS defence said.

About the number of cases referred to the internal complaints committee in the last three years along with cases where action was taken on such complaints, the MoS Defence said 123 cases were referred to internal complaints committees out of which action was taken in 112 such cases.