NEW DELHI: The Army has now stepped-up efforts to train women officers for “command and leadership roles” as Colonels and beyond, even as the first five female cadets are set to be commissioned into frontline artillery regiments after passing out of the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai on April 29.
“The Army has initiated a series of concurrent actions at multiple levels to ensure the force swiftly transits towards inclusivity by empowering women officers for leadership roles,” a senior officer said on Saturday. “A special ‘Senior Command’ course, for instance, was recently organised at the Army War College in Mhow to prepare women officers for the rigours of command by orienting them on all arms perspectives of operational, intelligence, logistics and administrative aspects,” he added.
This came after the Army empanelled 108 women officers for command assignments in the Colonel-rank, with “multiple policy waivers being granted”, through a special selection board earlier this year.
“The government released 150 additional vacancies exclusively for these women officers. Therefore, there is no impact on the vacancies available to male officers,” the officer said.
Women officers started getting permanent commission (PC) in the Army from 2020-21 onwards, instead of being forced to leave the service after just 10-14 years as short-service commission (SSC) officers.
As for the OTA passing-out-parade, the major move to induct women officers for the first time in the Regiment of Artillery, which has over 280 units handling a variety of howitzers, guns and multiple-launch rocket systems, was first reported by TOI in early-January.