Women to be allowed combat role in Army: Gen Bipin Rawat

General Bipin Rawat. Pic/PTI

In a transformational move, the Indian Army is all set to open combat positions for women, a gender barrier broken by only a few countries globally.

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said the process to allow women in combat role, currently an exclusive domain of men, is moving fast and initially women will be recruited for positions in military police.

"I am looking at women coming as jawans. I am going to start it soon. Firstly, we will start with women as military police jawans," he said, giving details of the move to allow women in the male-dominated positions in the Army. Currently women are allowed in a number of select areas including in medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the Army but combat roles are kept off limit for them due to operational concerns and logistical issues. The Army Chief said he was ready to recruit women as jawans and the matter is being taken up with the government. "We have already started the process," Gen said. He said women will have to show grit and strength in taking up challenges in combat role and shattering the glass ceiling.

Creating history, the Indian Air Force, last year, had inducted three women as fighter pilots, less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis. A decision on having women as fighter pilots will be taken after evaluating the performance of the three women - Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh who are now part of IAF's fighter squadron.

Army says Pak video false
The Indian Army on Sunday denied Pakistan's claim that five Indian soldiers were killed along the Line of Control (LoC) in cross border firing.

The Pakistan Army claimed in a tweet on Saturday that five Indian soldiers were killed. A video, claiming an Indian post was destroyed, was also put up . However, rejecting the claim, defence sources said it was "false and fabricated".