Si Lady Captain: Women Sailors In Indian Navy

The Indian Navy is inducting women sailors for the first time. Approx. 10 lakh individuals have applied for the available posts in the Indian Navy, among them 82,000 are women.

The Navy Chief Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar  says,“Our aim is to have Made-in-India security solutions for country, Commissioning of aircraft carrier INS Vikrant was a landmark event for India.”

Operationally, India had very intense and engaging time in the last one year, Chief said while adding that the Indian Navy had achieved very high operational tempo in the last one year.

In order to emphasize that the services are gender-neutral, Chief said that the Indian Navy has previously accepted fighter pilots and female air operations officers, and now women sailors are being enlisted.

The Navy Chief added that in the upcoming year, women would be allowed to join all remaining branches. The Navy commander was addressing at the National Defense Academy’s (NDA) passing out parade at Khadakwasla, Pune.

“Services are gender-neutral. Already there are women doing combat roles. There are fighter pilots and air operations officers in the Navy. Now all branches are being opened in the coming year, we have started inducting women sailors as well. It is a landmark achievement,” said the Navy chief.

“We have had a good response, for 3000 vacancies we had almost 10 lakh applicants of whom 82,000 were women. We don’t know finally how many of them will meet all the standards because we do not have separate standards of education, physical as the job is the same,” the Navy chief added.

Notably, The Navy Chief, Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar is himself an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. He was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 1 January, 1983.  He is the 25th and current Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS). Previously, he served as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command.