Historic! Women sailors join Indian Navy

For the first time, the Indian Navy is inducting women sailors, said Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar while adding that around 3,000 Agniveers have arrived, and 341 of them are women. Of the 10 lakh individuals who applied for the available positions in the Indian Navy, he said that 82,000 of them were women.

“Our aim is to have Made-in-India security solutions for country,” Kumar said. “Commissioning of aircraft carrier INS Vikrant was a landmark event for India.”

Operationally, India had very intense and engaging time in the last one year, Kumar said while adding that the Indian Navy had achieved very high operational tempo in the last one year.

In order to emphasise that the services are gender-neutral, Kumar said that the Indian Navy has previously accepted fighter pilots and female air operations officers, and that women sailors are now being enlisted.

The Navy Chief added that in the upcoming year, women would be allowed to join all remaining branches. The Navy commander was addressing at the National Defense Academy's (NDA) passing out parade at Khadakwasla, Pune.

"Services are gender-neutral. Already there are women doing combat roles. There are fighter pilots and air operations officers in the Navy. Now all branches are being opened in the coming year, we have started inducting women sailors as well. It is a landmark achievement," said the Navy chief.

"We have had a good response, for 3000 vacancies we had almost 10 lakh applicants of whom 82,000 were women. We don't know finally how many of them will meet all the standards because we do not have separate standards of education, physical as the job is the same," the Navy chief added.

Passing Out Parade of the 143rd course of the NDA commenced in the early hours of Wednesday on Khetrapal Parade Ground located at Khadakwasla in Pune.

Notably, Admiral Kumar is himself an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. He was commissioned into the Indian Navy on January 1, 1983.

(With ANI inputs)