Navy to bring in new ergonomic workwear for women on warships, standardise all uniforms

The new overalls will provide more comfort and address the physiological needs of women in a quick tempo environment.

The Indian Navy is looking at introducing an ergonomic design of overalls for women serving onboard warships, with the move coming on the back of their induction in the personnel below officer rank (PBOR) cadre for the first time, and their numbers poised to steadily grow in the coming years, officials aware of the development said on Saturday.

Feedback was sought from different naval commands and establishments on the design of the new overalls (File)(PTI )

The navy has also decided to standardise the uniforms of all officers and sailors (men and women), HT has learnt.

The new fire-retardant overalls — the standard workwear for personnel serving on warships — will provide more comfort to women and address the physiological aspect of relieving themselves in a quick tempo environment, said one of the officials requesting anonymity.

The navy is the first among the three services to induct women in PBOR cadre across all streams.

“New overalls for women officers and sailors are in the works so that they are not inconvenienced on the job,” said a second official, who also asked not to be named.

The navy’s first batch of Agniveers (recruited under the Agnipath scheme), including around 270 women, graduated from INS Chilka, the training facility in Odisha, and joined service in March 2023. The scheme marked a stark departure from the military’s decades-old recruitment system that was scrapped last year. It seeks to recruit soldiers for four years, with a provision to retain 25% of them in regular service for 15 more years after fresh screening.

Feedback was sought from different naval commands and establishments on the design of the new overalls, said the first official.

Around 40 women officers are currently serving onboard warships. In 2021, the navy assigned four women officers to warships after a hiatus of almost 25 years. In a short-lived experiment, women from the navy’s logistics and medical branches were deployed on fleet tanker INS Jyoti in 1997.

The navy is set to go in for common uniforms for its personnel across the board, with focus on the dresses being “comfortable and functional”, the officials said. “Working requirements have been factored in. The change will align the navy more with the uniform regulations of the army and air force,” said a third official, asking not to be named.

The navy is working on making the workplace equal for its women cadre.

On October 20, the navy received its latest stealth destroyer, Imphal, from Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai, its first warship with separate accommodation for women sailors. To be sure, women officers are currently serving onboard several warships that have separate berthing facilities for them. But not so for women sailors.

Other key changes include the upcoming redesignation of ranks in PBOR cadre to make them gender neutral.

The navy has completed a review of ranks held by sailors, inherited from the British, and is set to replace them with Indianised designations as part of a larger drive to jettison colonial military traditions, with gender-neutral changes to the ranks also to be announced shortly.

More than 65,000 sailors will now get new ranks.

Seven ranks in the navy’s PBOR cadre will be redesignated, including three existing titles that are not gender neutral. These are Master Chief Petty Officer Ist Class, Master Chief Petty Officer IInd Class, Chief Petty Officer, Petty Officer, Leading Seaman, Seaman Ist Class and Seaman IInd Class.