Government grant formal Sanction letter for Permanent Commission of women officers in the Indian Army

Women officers in the Indian Army will  be eligible to play broader roles with the grant of Permanent Commission (PC) for women in the armed forces by the Centre, on 23 July.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given the formal Government Sanction Letter for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in the Army.

Women officers first joined the Indian Army in 1992 as part of the boosting gender sensitivity of the times. The terms and conditions at that time were clear. It was a Short Service Commission (SSC) for five years; later it was lengthened to 10 and yet again to 14. They could receive permanent commission in only two departments.

The order specifies the grant of PC to SSC women officers in all the 10 streams of the Army in which they presently serve — the Army Air Defence (AAD), Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), and Intelligence Corps in addition to the existing streams of Judge and Advocate General (JAG) and the Army Educational Corps (AEC), Army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said.

Women have so far been allowed Permanent commission in only the Judge Advocate General (JAG) and Army Educational Corps (AEC).

"In anticipation, the Army HQ had already set in motion a series of preparatory actions for the conduct of the PC selection board for eligible women officers. The board will be scheduled as soon as all eligible women SSC officers exercise their option and complete requisite documentation," said an Army officer on Thursday.

In September 2019, the Ministry of Defence improved one anomaly based upon a judgment, by accepting that from April 2020 women officers will be capable for permanent commission but only those commissioned from 2014 onwards will be eligible for the same.