A military is a place where men and women are treated equally – literally, since 1992 when women started inducting into the forces. While there is no need for women in Indian Military, there is no need for men either. What Indian military need are fine soldiers and finest of officers to lead them.
All of them work together shoulder to shoulder and arm-in-arm but what we miss out is the significant role played by the women to keep India’s military up and running. Which brings us to look at some mind-blowing women and their achievements in the military:
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Divya Ajith Kumar, The First Women to Receive ‘Sword of Honour’:
Let’s start with the best. Captain Divya Ajith Kumar is the first generation soldier with no army blood in her family and history in her past. She joined NCC which inspired her to join Indian Army and participated in NCC women contingent in Rajpath and later joined OTA where she became the first woman in the history of the Indian Army to receive the coveted ‘Sword of Honour’.
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Jawan Shanti Tigga, First Female Jawan of India:
Jawan Shanti Tigga cleared all her tests to join the 969 Railway Engineer Regiment of Territorial Army in 2011 where she earned the highest position of a marksman in firing. She was honored by former president Pratibha Patil for being the first female jawan of our country.
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Lieutenant Ganeve Lalji, The First Woman Key Aide to an Army Commander:
A third-generation Army officer, Lt Ganeve Lalji was commissioned in the Corps of Military Intelligence in 2011 and has recorded several achievements during here Young Officers’ course in Pune. Lieutenant Ganeve Lalji made history by becoming the first woman to be appointed as a key aide to an Army Commander as part of Indian Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh’s efforts to provide more avenues to women in the force.
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Punita Arora, first woman in Indian military to don the rank of Lieutenant General and Vice Marshal:
Punita Arora is the first woman in India to don the second highest rank i.e. Lieutenant General of Indian Armed Forces and the first Vice-admiral of Indian Navy. Yes, both at a time!
Prior to becoming a Vice Admiral, she became Commandant of Armed Forces Medical College in 2004 thereafter becoming the first woman officer to command the medical college. She moved from the Army to the Navy as the Armed Forces Medical Services has a common pool which allows officers to migrate from one service to another depending on the requirement.
Not only that, but she has been awarded 15 medals in her 36 years of career in Indian Armed Forces which include PVSM, VSM, and SM.
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, First Female Officer to Receive the Sena Medal for Gallantry:
Without bothering too much about her personal safety Mitali Madhumita, then on a United Nations’ mission in Kabul, thrust herself headlong to save precious lives buried under the debris when the Indian embassy in Kabul suffered a terror attack on February 26, 2011. For her valiant act, Mitali was conferred with the Sena Medal, the very first awarded to a woman army officer who went beyond the call of duty and helped save lives.
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Padmavathy Bandopadhyay, First Woman Air Marshal of the IAF:
Padmavathy Bandopadhyay was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) for her conduct during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In her career, she has been the first woman to become a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India and the first Indian woman to have conducted scientific research at the North Pole. She is also the first woman officer to have completed the Defence Service Staff College course in 1978. She was the Director General Medical Services (Air) at the Air Headquarters. In 2002, she became the first woman Air Marshal of the Indian Air Force and the second woman in the Indian armed forces to be promoted to a three-star rank (after Indian Army’s Lt. General Punita Arora).
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Gunjan Saxena, First Woman Officer To Fly In A Combat Zone:
During the Kargil war, Flight Officer Gunjan Saxena made history by becoming the first woman IAF officer to fly in a combat zone. She was later honored with the Shurya Vir Award. She guided her helicopter, dodging artillery shells through the steep valleys of Kargil as a Flying Officer in the Indian Air Force. She is the first ever woman lady pilot of Indian Air Force who proved her mettle in Operation Vijay and is in IAF history books as the Kargil girl. She had flown her Cheetah helicopter in extremely hostile terrain to retrieve injured soldiers in the Kargil War.
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Teji Uppal, First Woman Officer to Land a Military Multi-Engine Aircraft at a High Altitude Airfield:
After her 2 tenures in IAF since 2002, Sqn Ldr Teji Uppal was selected for conversion training on IL-76, a multi-engine heavy lift strategic airlift aircraft. This was the first instance of women officers being chosen for multi-engine aircraft in Indian Air Force and proving her mettle, she cleared landings at Leh and became the first woman officer to land a military multi-engine aircraft at the high altitude airfield located at an elevation of 15,400 feet about mean sea level (MSL) just a few kilometers away from the Line of Actual Control in Leh.
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Nidhi Handa, Reached the B-Green Category in Just 6 Years:
Sqn Ldr Nidhi Handa is the first woman pilot in IAF to reach the B-Green category which allows her to captain an aircraft in all the roles in every sector of the country and all that in a short career span of just six years. She hails from Himachal Pradesh.
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Nivedita Choudhary, First Woman from IAF to Summit Everest:
It was in October 2009 that Choudhary, an IAF officer who had just joined the squadron in Agra, chanced upon a broadcast calling for volunteers for IAF’s women expedition to the Everest. She volunteered for the extreme adventure activity to become the first woman from the Indian Air Force (IAF) to summit the Mt. Everest – and the first woman from Rajasthan to achieve this feat.
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Puja Thakur, First Woman to Lead Guard of Honour:
Wing Commander Puja Thakur came into limelight when she became the first woman to lead the Guard of Honour for the US President Barack Obama, one of the world’s most powerful men in the recent times.
Read about more such inspiring women in the military here.
Read 9 Things Women Should Know Before Joining the Indian Military
