HURRAY ! WOMEN CAN FLY COMBAT AIRCRAFTS

In what can be called a landmark decision in the true empowerment of women, and bestowing equality, the Indian Air Force has approved the training and induction of women as fighter pilots, as tweeted by the spokesperson of the MOD, SitanshuKar today.

The tweet said, “FLASH: Ministry of Defence approves induction of women into Fighter Combat stream of #IAF @manoharparikkar” (SIC)

The MoD in its statement said that the decision has been taken “in keeping with the aspirations of Indian women and is in line with contemporary trends in armed forces of developed nations”. This comes a few weeks after India’s Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha announced the induction of women in combat roles.

“We have women flying transport aircraft and helicopters,” Air Chief Marshal Raha had said at the Air Force Day function earlier this month. “We are now planning to induct them into the fighter stream to meet the aspirations of young women in India.”

The long held fear that had impeded this judgement was the fear of torture and rape of women pilots in case of being shot down and captured beyond enemy lines. Up till now, women pilots in the defence forces were restricted to fly either Choppers or transport aircrafts only. The first batch of women combat pilots will be handpicked from the current batch of the Air Force Academy, and India is expected to enlist its first qualified woman fighter pilot by 2017.

Countries like the United States of America had allowed women in the seats of combat aircrafts since 1993 and UK in 1994, and Pakistan inducted its first woman pilot, Ayesha Farooq in 2013.