Siachen soldiers: Woman officer deployed for first time at world’s highest battleground

Like other soldiers, she will have a three-month stint in the frozen landscape where the temperature can dip to minus 60 degrees Celsius.

Almost four decades after India launched Operation Meghdoot in April 1984 to secure the Siachen glacier, the army has for the first time deployed a woman officer, Captain Shiva Chouhan, at the world’s highest and coldest battleground, officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Captain Shiva Chauhan will be operationally deployed post-completion of arduous training in Kumar Post on the Siachen glacier. (ANI)

Like other soldiers, she will have a three-month stint in the frozen landscape where the temperature can dip to minus 60 degrees Celsius.

Chouhan is from the Corps of Engineers, and underwent a month’s training at the Siachen Battle School before being deployed at the glacier on Monday, the army said in a statement. The woman officer is from Rajasthan and holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from NJR Institute of Technology in Udaipur.

She trained at the Chennai-based Officers Training Academy and was commissioned into the army in May 2021, the officials said, declining to be named. She is in her mid-20s.

The woman officer was put through rigorous training at the Siachen Battle School where she trained alongside the officers and men of Indian Army, the army said. “The training included endurance training, ice wall climbing, avalanche and crevasse rescue and survival drills,” its statement said. “In spite of various challenges, Captain Shiva with unflinching commitment successfully completed the training.”

The army began inducting women officers in the short-service stream three decades ago. The armed forces have come a long way since the early 1990s and are now offering women officers a raft of opportunities that have given them new, hard-earned identities, empowered them and helped bridge the gender gap significantly in a traditionally male-dominated field.

Women have proven themselves in the armed forces time and again, said Lieutenant Colonel Sarita Satija, who served in the Army Ordnance Corps for almost 21 years before retiring in April 2021. “I think the next step should be to open the doors of the army’s combat arms to women. I have always believed there’s not limit to what women can achieve,” Satija said.

Chouhan is now deployed at the Kumar post at a height of 15,632 feet. Almost 80% posts on the glacier are located above 16,000 feet, with the highest post at more than 21,000 feet. She will be a team leader at the post, and will be responsible for numerous combat engineering tasks.

Several rounds of talks between India and Pakistan on demilitarising the Siachen glacier --- an old sore in bilateral ties -- have failed, with Islamabad refusing to authenticate troop positions on the ground.

“With just one year of service, Captain Shiva displayed grit and determination by successfully leading the Sura Soi Cycling Expedition from Siachen War Memorial to Kargil War Memorial conducted on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas in July 2022, covering a distance of 508km. The officer then took up the challenge of leading the men of Sura Soi Engineer Regiment at the world’s highest battlefield, and based on her performance was selected to undergo training at the Siachen Battle School,” an army official said.

Women in uniform are no longer on the fringes, but are being assigned central roles on a par with their male counterparts. They are flying fighter planes, serving on warships, being inducted in the personnel below officer (PBOR) cadre, eligible for permanent commission, and undergoing training at the National Defence Academy.

The Indian Air Force and Navy have allowed women officers to join their special forces units --- the Garud commando force and Marine Commandos, respectively, to promote gender equality within their ranks, provided they meet the criteria for selection.

Physiological, psychological and cultural factors were often cited to deny more military roles to women in the past. However, one of the turning points came in 2015 when the air force decided to induct them into the fighter stream. The navy is also giving them more opportunities to serve on warships alongside men. The army has allowed them to fly helicopters. To be sure, tanks and combat positions in infantry are still no-go zones for women.