The government has decided to recruit women jawans into the Army’s Corps of Military Police (CMP) for investigating gender specific crimes.
However, induction of women into the Army’s combat arms could still be a long way as the CMP is only a support arm.
Putting women jawans in combat roles will be a lunge forward for the Army, known for being male-dominated.
But is also a step that the male jawans may not be mentally prepared for, according to women officers.
Secondly, for women to progress on to roles of higher responsibility and hence equality, there need to be operational changes in the way the Army looks at its lady officers and at the same time bring out a mentality change.
The Army has four such combat arms - infantry, mechanised infantry, armour and artillery.
But women officers or jawans, being placed in physical combat situations in the army could still be a remote possibility.
