Shaliza Dhami: Flying Colours

WHEN SHALIZA DHAMI, who recently made history by becom­ing the first woman to command a frontline combat unit in the Indian Air Force, joined the Air Wing of the National Cadet Corps as a student—a moment her father described as the turning point in her life— a career in the military would still have seemed only a remote possibility.

There has traditionally been resistance within the armed forces to the induction of women. Even today, a vast majority of them in the forces mostly serve in ancillary and non-combat roles like medical services. The Indian Air Force has been the most progressive among the three armed divisions, but even they began inducting female fighter pilots only as recently as 2016.

The present appointment of Group Captain Dhami in the Western sector, guarding arguably the tensest boundary in Asia, is a historic moment, representative of the rapid change taking place in the all-male domain of the Indian armed forces in the last few years. More and more women are entering this field, taking on and excelling in diverse roles, and showing just how misguided the earlier reluctance on the part of the military top brass was.

Dhami, an NCC cadet from a middle-class family in Ludhiana, Punjab— her parents worked in government jobs—joined the Air Force after her graduation and was commissioned as a helicopter pilot back in 2003, flying Chetaks and Cheetahs. She went on to serve as flight commander of a helicopter unit at the Hindon air base, located in Uttar Pradesh. She is believed to have excelled as a pilot who, during natural calamities like floods, flew several search-and-rescue missions and undertook flood relief operations. Also, a qualified flying instructor (a first for a woman in the Indian Air Force), she was serving in the operations branch of a frontline command headquarters, when her new appointment came through. She will now command a missile squadron.

For women, entering the Indian armed forces has been an uphill task. During the British colonial period, their role in the military was mostly restricted to being nurses. The armed forces began opening themselves to women in the early-1990s after petitions in courts. This was for short-service commissions in a few non-medical military branches like the education and legal departments. But over the years, more departments have opened up, and in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that permanent commission and command postings in all non-combat services in the Army must be open for women too. The court also opened up the National Defence Academy, which provides the core of India’s military leadership, to women.

All of this came about with reluctance. Back in 2014, the then Air Force chief Arup Raha was arguing against the induction of women fighter pilots, saying, “women by nature are not physically suited for flying fighter planes for long hours, especially when they are pregnant or have other health problems.” He would change his mind two years later when the first three women fighter pilots were inducted. In 2018, the then Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat would tell a news channel that there weren’t female soldiers serving in frontline combat positions because “a woman would feel uncomfortable at the frontline” and that women needed to be “cocooned” from the eyes of their male subordinate soldiers. This was when the defence ministry was then headed by a woman—Nirmala Sitharaman.

Women still make up a tiny fraction of the armed forces. But goaded by the Supreme Court and changing social norms, the earlier hesitation is slipping away. The Navy has started inducting women officers on frontline ships, earlier a no-go zone. Just a few weeks ago, the Army cleared 108 women officers for the rank of colonel, making them eligible for command roles. Women officers have also started leading various non-combat Army units. And earlier this year, a woman—Captain Shiva Chauhan of the Bengal Sappers regiment— was even deployed at the Siachen glacier.

As the likes of Dhami shatter more stereotypes, expect a lot more rapid change.

combatfemale commanderIndian Air ForcemilitaryShaliza Dhami