By Gayatri Manu
On 18th June, India will get its first women fighter pilots: cadets Bhawana Kanth, Mohana Singh and Awana Chaturvedi will be commissioned to fly fighter jets months after the Air Force announced it would allow women in combat roles.
The three women began training at the Air force academy near Hyderabad in January 2015, but were not allowed to fly combat planes at the time, since women had been systemically barred from the fighter stream up until October 2015. Three more women cadets have been trained for the helicopter and transport streams.
While Kanth and Chaturvedi are from civilian backgrounds, Singh’s father and grandfather served in the Air Force as transport pilots. Singh is the first in the family to become a combat pilot.
But there’s a catch: the women will not be sent on missions outside the country. They will fly Combat Air Patrols and will protect Indian skies. They’ve also been advised to put off motherhood for at least four years.
Back in 2014, before political correctness overtook the Air Force, chief Arup Raha had some crazy things to say about why he thought women just weren’t suitable to be fighter pilots. (Read more about it here.)
It reportedly takes up to Rs 13 crore in defence funds to train a single cadet to fly a fighter jet. One officer said, “Women fighter pilots may get married, have children, disrupting our tight flying schedules. Fighter flying requires very high level of physical and mental fitness.”
In the meanwhile, countries such as Pakistan, China and Russia have had women fighter pilots for years.
Last month, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the decision to grant permanent commission to women in the fighter stream of the Air force would be taken in a year’s time.