Squadron leader Avani Chaturvedi, the Indian Air Force’s first female fighter pilot, is set to take part in a maiden air exercise ‘Veer Guardian-2023’. The exercise will be carried out from January 16 to January 26 at the Hyakuri Air Base and its surrounding airspace in Omitama, and the Iruma Air Base in Sayama in Japan.

The women officers have been participating in wargames with the foreign contingents coming to India, including the French Air Force where two of the lady fighter pilots took part, but this would be the first time they would be representing the country on foreign land.

Besides, Captain Shiva Chouhan of the Indian Army's Fire and Fury Corps became the first woman officer to get operationally deployed at the world's highest battlefield, Siachen, after a month's arduous training at Siachen Battle School along with other personnel.

All this is brilliant, however, questions are raised of women's limited representation.

Women have been serving in the Indian Armed Forces in various roles for several decades. They are currently allowed to serve in all branches of the military, including the Army, Navy, and Air Force. In recent years, the Indian government has made efforts to increase the representation of women in the Armed Forces, with a goal of having women comprise 15% of the military by 2020.

However, due to various factors, the representation of women in the Indian Armed Forces is still relatively low, with women making up just over 3% of the military as of 2021. Despite this, women have been serving in non-combat roles such as in logistics, medical and education corps, and have also been inducted in combat roles in the Indian Airforce.

In the 41st episode of In Our Defence, Dev Goswami, the show's host, and "Def-Savvy" Abhishek Bhalla the national bureau chief, are joined by India Today TV’s Executive Editor Preeti Choudhry. Well, Preeti does have an army background but “she never describes herself as a fauji brat”, Bhalla remarks.

Referring to Chaturvedi’s achievement Bhalla believes that it’s not a landmark. “Because if she is already a fighter pilot, she would be expected to be going to such exercises.”

“Talking about these is really cosmetic.” I feel the army is more discriminatory than the other armed forces,” Preeti says.

Tune in to this relevant discussion on women’s sparse representation in the armed forces.

Produced by Anna Priyadarshini
Sound mix by Amrit Regi