The Navy will recruit women personnel for the first time this year through the new Agneepath scheme, which may pave the way for their deployment on warships in the times to come. The exact number of women to be inducted this year of the 3,000 Navy Agniveers is yet to be finalized, but it is likely that between 10 and 20 per cent of the women will be recruited in the first batch. The training will commence on November 21 at Naval Establishment INS Chilka in Odisha.
According to the English news website Times of India, Chief Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi told on Sunday, “The Agneepath scheme in the Navy will be done on the basis of gender. He said, we had said earlier also that 30 women officers are posted on the frontline of the warship. After this we decided that the time has come to recruit women personnel in the Navy as well. We have also decided that now sea-going women will be involved in all trades.”
Shortage of about 9000 women officers
In the 1990s, 1.4 million women have been inducted into the strong armed forces. But till the year 2019-20, only 3904 women personnel as army officers (in which 1705 in Army, 1640 in Indian Air Force and only 559 women in Navy) there is a shortage of 9000 officers out of 70 thousand strong officers.
Talk continues on the number of female candidates to be admitted
The Corps of Military Police (CMP) now also has 100 women personnel after the Army first started recruiting women in other ranks in 2019-2020. The recruitment of 199 more CMP women in the last two years was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vice Admiral Tripathi said the percentage of women joining the first batch as Agniveer is still under discussion, arrangements are being made to accommodate women candidates in INS Chilka.
About a year ago, the Navy deployed four women officers on warships, two each on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and the fleet tanker INS Shakti for the first time after a long gap of 23 years. Now this number has increased to 30. Due to this, there are signs of big opportunities coming for women in the Navy in the future.