(a) the number of women employed in the three wings of the defence forces, service-wise;
(b) whether there has been an increase in the number of women joining the defence forces during the last three years and the current year;
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the details of the schemes being introduced by the Government to incentivise women to increase their participation in the defence forces?
MINISTER OF STATE (SHRI SHRIPAD NAIK)
IN THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
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(a) The current number of women in the three armed forces is as under:
Indian Army 6892
Indian Air Force 1878
Indian Navy 685
(b) & (c): Year-wise induction details of women in the three armed forces during the past three years and current year is as follows:
Year 2017 2018 2019 2020
Indian Army 949 819 364 102
Indian Air Force 109 86 77 00
Indian Navy 57 38 54 18
(in progress)
(d) Induction of women as soldiers in Military Police. 1700 such posts have been sanctioned to be spread over 17 years. 101 women have started their training in January this year at Corps of Military Police Training Centre, Bangalore.
All the branches/streams of Indian Air Force (IAF) are open to women officers. Opportunities for career in IAF are publicised through print/electronic media in accordance with the policy on ‘Induction and Empowerment of Women in Armed Forces’. The Government has commenced a scheme for induction of women Short Service Commission (SSC) officers in the fighter stream of the flying branch in the year 2015. The IAF has also formulated the requisite gender neutral Air Hqr. Human Resource Policies (HRPs) enabling consideration of SSC officers for permanent commission in all ventures of the IAF.
Indian Navy has also progressively increased the avenues for women to join the Naval Force from 3 branches in 1992 to 11 branches in 2019.
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