The Navy for the first time will have women sailors and they will be deployed in all the branches open to their male counterpart, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Saturday. Besides the Navy, Army and Air Force are also inducting women through the Agnipath scheme of temporary appointment.
“The first batch of Agniveers have already reported. About 3,000 Agniveers have joined, out of which 341 are women. This is a landmark event for us because, for the first time, the Navy is inducting women sailors. We have been inducting women officers for about the last 16-17 years, but this is for the first time that we are inducting women sailors,” Admiral Kumar told reporters on the eve of Navy Day.
The new Agniveer recruits are currently undergoing training at the Navy’s training base - INS Chilka in Odisha. Describing it as “a transformational step”, he said in his opening remarks that “we already have women officers posted on frontline units, they will soon be joined by women in all ranks.”
Recently, the Navy chief had also interacted with the first batch of 19 women cadets at the National Defence Academy.
“Come next year, we are looking at women officers being inducted across all branches and not just seven or eight branches that they are restricted to as of today. Next year onwards, all branches will be opened for women officers as well,” the Navy Chief said.
In August, the Indian Navy’s SSR (Senior Secondary Recruit) and MR (Matric Recruit) registration process for recruitment through the Agnipath scheme was completed. According to the force, 9.55 lakh Agniveer applicants including 82,000 women aspirants had registered.
On June 14, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the “transformative” Agnipath scheme to recruit youth into the three services in the age group of 17-and-a-half-years to 21 for only 4 years. The Centre later extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment held in 2022 and 25 per cent of Agniveers will be retained for 15 more years of services.