NEW DELHI: After wrestling, women from Haryana are making a mark in the military arena as well. There are currently 34 women cadets from the state undergoing the rigorous three-year training course in the tri-Service National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla (Pune).
After SC in 2021-22 paved the way for women to take the NDA entrance exam after class XII, there are now 121 women cadets in the NDA, while five have dropped out.
After Haryana, there are 27 women cadets from UP, 13 from Rajasthan, 11 from Maharashtra, six from Madhya Pradesh and four from Punjab, among others, junior defence minister Sanjay Seth told Rajya Sabha in a written reply. “Selection to the NDA is through a national written exam conducted by UPSC, followed by selection (interview and physical fitness) by the Services Selection Board, with no demarcation or quota for any state or UT. The first batch of female cadets joined NDA in Aug 2022,” he added.
The armed forces have been inducting women since the early-1990s but their entry was restricted to military academies where cadets are taken after graduation and only as short-service commission officers. In the Army, for instance, “lady cadets” have been inducted at the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA) at Chennai for the last 30 years.
Though women now also get permanent commission and can be promoted as commanding officers in the rank of Colonel after Supreme Court’s intervention, they constitute a miniscule minority in the over 14-lakh strong armed forces, numbering just around 3,900 (excluding the medical stream) in the around 70,000-strong officer cadre in the armed forces.
