Womens’ Day : Do women also need gender equity?

An alumnus of Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana, has scripted history. She  has become the first ever woman helicopter pilot to head a frontline combat unit of the Indian Air Force.

Commissioned in the Indian Air Force in 2003, Group Captain Shailza Dhami, will now command a missile unit near the India-Pakistan border in Punjab. She has more than 2800 hours of flying choppers and is a qualified flying instructor.

She now has an opportunity to distinguish herself as a Commanding Officer of a Combat Unit of a strategic  air defense  location with surface to air missiles capabilities. As of today, Indian Air Force has 18 women fighter pilots and 145 women helicopter and transport aircraft pilots.

Growing number of women in combat roles, more so in the Indian Air Force, is just an indicator of  the increased role women are playing in the defense of the country. Though they still await their entry to infantry,  corps and mechanized infantry, 108 women officers have been approved for promotion to Colonel (select) rank in the Indian army.

It is not only the defense forces. Women are doing well in the police, another force in uniform.

Chandigarh has set a trend as it will have three women Superintendents of Police. Mohali-born Kanwardeep Kaur is expected to assume charge as Senior Superintendent of Police of Chandigarh. She is a Punjab cadre IPS officer. She will be joining two other IPS officers to complete an all-women team of Superintendents of Police in Chandigarh. Other two are  Manisha Chaudhary of Haryana cadre who is holding the charge of SSP Traffic and Shruti Arora of AGMUT cadre as Superintendent of Police, City.

Chandigarh had the distinction of having a woman as its police chief in Kiran Bedi, though for a short while. Punjab recently promoted a woman PS officer, Gurpreet Deo, to the rank of Director-General of Police.

Apart from women doing well in uniform positions, Nagaland, ahead of women’s day, made history by naming  Salhoutuonuo Kruse as the first ever woman Cabinet Minister of the State in its 60-year history. Besides Ms. Kruse, another woman elected to Nagaland assembly in the just concluded elections is Hekani Jakhalu. Both belong to the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party(NDPP).

These success stories are only a part of the general mandate for giving women gender equality though the discourse is changing to the demand for gender equity.

Prabhjot Singh