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‘Fear of getting captured as POWs shouldn’t be held against women’
Padmavathy Bandopadhyay, the first woman Indian Air Force (IAF) officer promoted to the Air Marshal rank, has said women should be allowed in combat roles as they have been allowed to join the NDA
Padmavathy Bandopadhyay, the first woman Indian Air Force (IAF) officer promoted to the Air Marshal rank who was decorated with the fourth-highest civilian award Padma Shri on Tuesday, has said women should also be allowed in combat roles as they have been allowed to join the National Defence Academy (NDA). She said the fear of being captured as prisoners of war (POW) should not be held against women.
A third of the candidates appearing for the NDA examination on November 14 for entry into the premier joint services training institution are women, HT reported on October 30. A Supreme Court order on August 18 made women eligible to join NDA, which was a male preserve for almost seven decades. Women were allowed to serve in select branches of the army, IAF and navy as short-service commission officers three decades earlier. Front-line combat roles were off-limits to women until the government approved a 2015 IAF plan to induct them into the fighter stream. Warships, tanks, and combat positions in the infantry are still no-go zones for women. Navy has women as pilots and observers onboard its maritime reconnaissance aircraft, which is a combat role.
Bandopadhyay, 77, who retired in 2005, said if women work hard and prove themselves, then nobody can stop them. “If I can do it, then anybody can do it. Whether you are a man or woman, all challenges that come your way need to be accepted. We are not posted in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, or any of those big cities. We are in the periphery.”
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Bandopadhyay said women should not be afraid of tough field postings. She added there were three types of people that existed in the armed forces. Bandopadhyay said the first were the ones who “mollycoddled” women, the second thought they could do nothing and were useless, and the third accepted them and encouraged them to do better. She added this has stopped, and women are treated like any other officers.
Bandopadhyay said when officers were held captive and mutilated during the Kargil war, did people talk about it? “Are they not human beings?” she said when asked about POW argument to keep women away from combat roles. “...both men and women can be held as POWs...everyone has to be prepared for it because it may or may not happen.”
Bandopadhyay said comparisons between the opportunities women get in the American and Israeli militaries with India were not valid. “We are culturally different from these nations. Incorporating women in the force will take time but the move towards this has been made by allowing women cadets to join the NDA from 2023.”
Bandopadhyay, a recipient of Param Vishisht Seva, Ati Vishisht, and Vishisht Seva medals who joined the IAF in 1968, was the second woman to be promoted to a three-star rank. She was also the first Indian woman to conduct scientific research at the North Pole.
