In a major step to increase role of women in armed forces, the NDA government is going to allow lady officers to command battalions in army's branches such as aviation, engineers and signal.
The government is planning to file an affadavit in the Supreme Court where it will say that women officers joining the force from 2015-16 onwards would be nurtured to command battalions, highly placed Army sources said here.
The women officers would be allowed to compete with their male counterparts to be eligible to head the units, they said. The women officers would be given some relaxation in terms of physical standards but otherwise they would have to go through same regimen as male officers, the sources said.
The branches in which they are going to be allowed to command includes aviation, engineers and signals, they said. The women officers are so far allowed only in non-combat arms and are not allowed to command units.
The women officers were first inducted in the early 1990s and have been now cleared to jointhe force as permanent commission officers in select branches such as legal, ordnance and supply.
Women have been allowed in medical arm of the forces even before the independence days.
