Setting aside the ‘101 excuses’ proffered by the government as being gender discriminatory, the Supreme Court has levelled the playing field for women officers in the Navy, a month after it passed orders to this effect and put their counterparts in the Army on an equal footing with the men. The court verdict is a fair attempt at filling the unfair lacunae in the path of progression of the naval women’s careers. Now, all set for a permanent commission (PC) on a par with their male colleagues, Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers, including those inducted before 2008, are assured of the dignity of equal opportunity. The grant of pension benefits to retired women officers comes as a tangible recognition of the fact that the women officers are by no means any less dedicated or deserving.

In fact, this landmark judgment is steered largely by the achievements and accolades that the naval women have garnered ever since their induction into the armed forces began in 1992. Prominent among the naval heroines who have made the nation proud are Commander Ruby Singh, the first woman to lead a platoon in the contingent of the Navy on Republic Day in 1993. Then, in 2018 the all-women crew of the Indian Navy that successfully navigated the choppy seas in their voyage around the world in the vessel INSV Tarini put paid to all the naysaying about their sailing credentials. Those serving on board the INS Jyoti warship are carrying the flag high by knocking off gender stereotypes.

However, this struggle for equality has not been a breeze. Neither does it promise to be. The women officers of the forces had received an order for PC from the Delhi High Court as far back as 2010. But it was never implemented by the government, which, casting aspersions on their abilities and physiological strength, chose to challenge it in the SC. After the legal victory, the uphill challenge of breaking through rigid social mores and mindsets of their male superiors awaits the talented women as they vie for positions of command and power in the forces.