The Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in January this year, took the historic decision to induct women as jawans in the Corps of Military Police in the Indian Army. Army has now issued a formal advertisement following the same to recruit women as jawans by starting their online registration for recruitment in the corps of military police.
This is being seen as a major breakthrough for women in armed forces as so far, they were being inducted only as officers and this is the first time they would be taken in as soldiers.
According to a tweet by Defence Minister, in January, “The women will be inducted in a graded manner to eventually comprise 20 per cent of total Corps of Military Police of the Army.”
To improve representation of women in our armed forces Smt @nsitharaman takes a historic decision to induct women for the first time in PBOR role in Corps of Military Police 1/2 pic.twitter.com/PmEVEZ9h03
— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) January 18, 2019
“Online registration will start today for the recruitment of women as jawans and the last date for it is June 8. The project was first mooted by Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat soon after he took charge of the force,” Army officials said.
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Women will be inducted in a graded manner to eventually comprise 20 per cent of total Corps of Military Police and their role would include probing crime cases and also assisting the Army in field operations wherever needed.
Last year, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat had said the process to allow women in a combat role, currently, an exclusive domain of men was moving fast and initially, women will be recruited for positions in Military Police.
The Army has now chalked out an induction plan of approximately 800 women in military police with a yearly intake of 52 personnel per year. Earlier, women were only in select areas such as medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the Army.
The role of the military police includes policing cantonments and Army establishments, preventing the breach of rules and regulations by soldiers, maintaining movement of soldiers as well as logistics during peace and war, handling prisoners of war and extending aid to civil police. As per government data, the Army has 3.80 per cent of its workforce as women, the Air Force has 13.09 per cent and the Navy six per cent.
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