In its report on 'Women in Armed Forces' tabled today, the Committee on Empowerment of Women said it "fails to understand the negativism" when it comes to employing more women in the three Services.
"The Committee takes strong objection to the way their recommendation is brushed aside without attaching importance that it needs to be given.... The tone and tenor of the reply of the Government clearly communicates the nonchalant attitude towards the concerns of the Committee.
"We fail to understand the negativism when it comes to employing more women in the armed forces and reiterate their earlier recommendation to enhance intake of women in various branches of armed forces," the report said.
On its recommendations for opening more branches for Permanent Commission to women, the Committee said, "Defence Ministry has turned a blind eye to this recommendation by sticking to their earlier stand that women officers would be considered only in specific branches."
The report stated that Committee's suggestions to explore possibility of having more women officers in branches such as Military police, Army Postal Service and General Service have been dismissed with a grim reply by the Ministry.
"It is extremely disturbing to note that Ministry has not even bothered to try even exploring a single other option for women officers and instead relied heavily on the existing discriminative policies," it said.
