‘Women to be inducted in Army by 2021’

Over 100 women shortlisted for CMP.

Jabalpur: A candidate attempts long jump while participating in an army recruitment rally for women military police as soldiers for General Duty (GD), in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. (PTI Photo) (PTI9_18_2019_000031B)

The first batch of 100 women will start training for the Corps of Military Police (CMP) in December and will be inducted by end 2021, said Lt Gen Ashwani Kumar (retd), who superannuated as the Adjutant General (AG) on Thursday. On Permanent Commission (PC) for women, he said women officers commissioned from April 2020 onwards can opt for it in six streams.

“We have completed the selection process. More than 100 women from all over the country has been shortlisted to join CMP. The first batch of 100 women selected will start training in December,” Lt. Gen Kumar said interacting with journalists a day before his retirement from Service. “It will take two years to train them. By the end of 2021, we will have the first batch of women in CMP,” he stated.

So far, women were being inducted only as officers and this is the first time they would be joining the army as the soldiers or “Personnel Below Officer Rank” (PBOR). The army plans to induct 1700 women MP over 17 years.

Lt. Gen. Kumar said the Army has identified the units where the first batch will be posted and they have started preparing the infrastructure. For the training which will on the lines of Assam Rifles and Karnataka Women Police Battalion, four women instructors have already been posted at CMP centre in Bengaluru including a doctor and a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer. “The first women officer, who had trained the Assam Rifles is among the four instructors,” he said.

Stressing on the safety aspect, Lt. Gen. Kumar said one of the four instructors will be present at the women's barracks at all times to ensure safety of women soldiers undergoing training. “From every CMP unit, two males will be reduced and women will be posted. The Divisional Provost unit will have an entire section of women," he added.

On PC, he said women officers have to make up their mind after 2-3 years to identify one of the six streams like interpreter or air traffic controller so that can be trained in that afterwards. So far women officers in the Army had PC in only three streams - medical, education and legal.

During the Independence Day address last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that “women officers who have been selected through the Short Service Commission (SSC) in our defence forces will now have the option to take up PC.”