India, the historic judgment of the Supreme Court: women in the army are equal to men

the BANGKOK - also now women will become the official effective and with the possibility of promotion in the most senior ranks in the indian army. He imposes a judgment of the Supreme Court immediately judged to be "historical" in a Country where there are prejudices and taboos towards the presence of women in the armed forces as in other public institutions. The same constitutional court had already expressed last month to the government so clear about their opinion after a series of attempts legal to maintain the status quo, which provides only for careers "temporary" for women officers. "Go put on the same level of men - said they do Not exclude them as a category". For this right "is required a change of mentality", was the opinion of the Court confirmed the verdict of the past few days.

A few are served in the raised shield of the legal government, according to which the comparison between the two sexes in the matter of a career officer can have consequences "undesirable". The soldiers of the males - claimed one of their exposed to the Court - are not yet educated mentally to accept women officers to command". Not to mention the "challenges of childbirth, maternity and child care". These theses have been defined to date so easy even "disturbing" by the judges according to which it is constitutionally required to extend the permanent service - so far applicable only to men - to all women officers, except in the carrying out of combat roles on the ground for which the Court entrusts the decision to the "competentii authority" of the military.

The indian armed forces have started to introduce in the ranks of the women in 1992 and since then have served in the "action" only in the air force as fighter pilots, but they could theoretically play the same role in the Navy once solved the unprecedented problems of "technical" on the ships of the fleet, where, for now, has been granted only a 24-year-old with the rank of first pilot maritime reconnaissance. In the army women have so far worked as doctors, nurses, engineers, signallers, administrators, and lawyers. They have also made the soldiers on the fields of battle handling explosives, detected and removed the mines and operated on the lines of communication. But until the judgment was for them only the so-called Short Service Commission of 5 years (up to a maximum of 14), without the possibility of extension and its benefits for career and retired, while the Court makes them now eligible for a "commission" permanent, which allows any official to carry out a full-time position.

"Throw slander on their abilities on the basis of sex is an affront not only to their dignity of women but to the dignity of the members of the indian army", was the sharp opinion of the judges. The judgment does not affect the appearance of the very low representation of women in uniform, less than 4 percent on a million soldiers and staff, including the 15 thousand women official temporary compared to the 40 thousand males graduated. The rest of the world, only Australia, Germany, Israel, the United States and more recently the Uk allow the presence of women in roles from fighters. Asking the government for a "change of mentality", the Court referred, among others, to certain statements made by "viral," the former army chief and current chief of staff of the Defence general Bipin Rawat, according to which a woman would feel uncomfortable in the first line". In 2018, he raised furious protests by saying that maternity leave is one of the problems, in addition to the fact that women need greater privacy and security and that India was not yet ready to accept their death in combat. But he also said one of the themes proposed by the lawyers of the government and rejected by the Court, namely, that in the eyes of the soldiers, males and women have to be "pampered" and that they would not have easily accepted to be subordinate.

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