WOMEN OFFICER CAN GET PERMANENT COMMISSION

The ministry has finally granted commission to women officer as per the order of Supreme Court which was passed earlier this February.On 17 feb,in the landmark verdict ,SC had ruled that women officer in Army should be granted permanent commission and Command positions in all the services other than combat whose decision was vested with the Army.

See,since 1992 all the three branches of Indian Armed forces have tried to promote gender equality by recruiting women in several non combat roles.In the Army,Navy and Air force women have been included in several stream including medical,legal,education,signals,engineering and logistics.But,however women's in Armed forces are facing gender based description on two grounds-

1)Entry in combat roles

2)Granting permanent commission 

BACKGROUND

See,the armed forces has restricted the entry of women to combat roles citing their physical and mental limitations and their unique physiological need which almost border on the line of gender stereotyping.But,however IAF has made some progress off let and it has started opening up to bring women into combat roles such as fighter pilot.But,Indian Army and Indian Navy are still firmly against the entry of women in combat roles but,in contrast countries such as Israel,Australia,Germany,USA already allowed women in all combat role.Then comes the issue of granting permanent commission.See,in armed forces those who are recruited under PC ,they get to serve until their retirement and as a result they enjoy retirement benefits such as pension.But,apart from from PC there is another stream of service which is known as SSC,they initially get to serve only for a period of 10 years and later they can take another extension of 4 years.So,in total SSC officer get to serve till 14 years,they can opt for PC but this privilege for opting for PC,earlier was extended to male SSC officer.Than in 2008,Army granted PC to female SSC officer in two stream that is the legal stream where women officer were serving as judges,advocates and education stream where women officer were serving as education core.See,presently women officer are allowed to serve in ten different non combat roles but permanent commission is granted to them in only law and education and then upon this women officer have been denied command posts,which would allow them to head their command unit.So,as we can see on three grounds that is combat role,grant of PC and command posting petition have been filed in SC and HC.   

REASONS GIVEN BY CENTRAL AND ARMED FORCES

The argument given by them may sound like a bizarre argument and even labelled them as sexiest and patriarchal because the argument of central and armed forces almost border themselves on the line of gender stereotyping,while SC was looking in the case of granting PC to women officer in the Army the central had argued against the grant of PC,the armed forces particularly to Army continues to make strong stand against the entry of women in combat roles.Similarly the armed forces are still hazitant  to promote women to command position.Some of the bizarre arguments include-

1)Male officer in Indian society are not accustomed to taking command from female officer.

2)Female officers have different physiological need which affect their physical and mental being,which is basically a reference to menstruation and on this basis center has doubt on performance ability of women officer.

3)The female officers have to take natures call such as pregnancy,child birth etc.

4)Indian society is not prepared to see a women officer being captured by enemy as of POW in actual combat. 

 

And it on these grounds women have been denied entry in combat forces and even grant of PC. 

 

These bizarre argument of central and armed forces have been dismissed  time and again by judiciary

and even labelled them as sexiest,gender stereotyping and patriarchal.

OPINION

See,I will not be sounding like Patriarchal or sexist and try to present my neutral view.Being an Army Brat I have seen the life of a Army man,they have their proper courts just like any SC or HC where matters are discussed and judgments given.Working as an officer in defense forces requires full commitment and hardship,they have to go through rigorous training and soldiers are recruited from all across the country where they still have the Patriarchal mentality existing.See,our demography is different from those countries like USA,ISRAEL,AUSTRALIA etc, we are bordered by two hostile countries who are in seek of infiltration and LOC violation,and these activities are in  fore everyday.

See,our defense forces have always seeked  for  citizens welfare and good being. Any decision is thoroughly discussed and presented before defense courts and then is made public.We have to trust our forces and stop making any racist remark without any proper knowledge of facts. 

HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN PANDEMIC:EXPOSED!

See,the Covid-19 has exposed the shortcoming of India's public healthcare system.In the coming month,we are going to require a few 1000 or few lakh hospital beds,and also require advance healthcare facility such as-

ICU,VENTILATORS AND BEDS.

  

But a large proportion of it is available in private sector than public sector.The question is who has created this polarization?Here are some possible reasons-

REASONS

Post independence like any other country,India has different set of priorities for its public healthcare system.Initially, we were busy in building the primary health care system, In order to cater basic healthcare reach to population,and this approach has left the building of secondary and tertiary healthcare                                                                            system over the year.

In the initial year just like any other developing country,India has been carrying out immunization program,to more and more people,under cover of vaccination.

It was focused on reducing its maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate,by investing heavily on maternal health and Paediatric(branch of medicine dealing with children and disease) health care.

Over the year India has been battling common infection such as TB,POLIO etc.So,over the year,India's most investment in public healthcare has gone into these priority areas,leading neglect of other areas,such as secondary and tertiary healthcare. 

 

HOW THIS IS NOT JUSTIFIED

Over the year the investment of India in public healthcare system has stagnated and it stands at just 1.3% of India's GDP.Investment in public healthcare system,this happens to be lowest in the world.Upon this lack of accountability,corruption and lack of regulation  in public healthcare system has resulted in severe shortage of ICU,ventilators and other advanced equipment in public sector.

The low investment of government in public healthcare system has also affected the public healthcare,as the specialized doctor who are poorly compensated in public sector,they take up attractive positions in private hospitals,leading to critical shortage in public sectors.In contrary to all these private healthcare system are expensive and unaffordable  and majority of India's population that continues to be poor,cannot access the private healthcare system.Hence,they are contained to low quality of services provided by public healthcare system.

 

ASSAM MOB LYNCHING

In the state of Assam,three people who were suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals were lynched by a mob on based suspicion that they were involved in cattle smuggling.This horrific incident of mob lynching points to complete breakdown of law in Assam and it adds to series of mob lynching incident witnessed across the country.Whether you talk about Palghar lynching where two Hindu Sadhus were lynched on suspicion that they were thieves,such repetitive incident of mob lynching in country points out to weakening of rule of law and it is a result of complete failure of governance and law and order of the state.See,for a society to have public order its people must have both fear and faith in the rule of law.The fear will not let them violate any law as they would be punished and the faith that justice would be delivered to them on account of injustice.But,in a society where people do not fear the rule of law and where they have lost their faith in rule of law,the people tend to take law in their  hands which results in incident such as mob lynching.So,by this logic we can assume that incidents such as mob lynching takes place in those countries where the governance and law and order machinery has completely failed to maintain public order.This assumption holds very true to state such as Assam because within a span of few weeks this is the second incident which has been witnessed in Assam.According to National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB),Assam has one of the highest crime rates in the country and it register nearly 143 crimes per 1 lakh population.See,if we observe few years,incidents of mob lynching has increased significantly and have been driven by circulation of fake news by social media platforms.Report shows that most incident of mob lynching which has taken place over past few years have been based on fake allegations that the victims who were targeted were involved in-

-Cow slaughtering

-Cattle Smuggling

-kidnapping of children

Even if these allegations are true and even the victims have committed crime as alleged still does not satisfy lynching by the mob.Analysis of these incidents show that most incidents of mob lynching took place on the basis of news circulated on social media and many of the incidents have communal angle to it.The root cause of these incidents is the polarization which already exist in our society.These things enable the mob to loose the fear in the name of the law and it embolden them to take law in their hand and target any individual on mere basis of any allegation or suspicion.

Currently NCRB continuous to list mob lynching as any other act of murder but this needs to be changed as mob lynching is not just any act of murder but it is a hate crime which is being committed by one section of society to another.See,lynching has no place in our democratic civilized society and it is the outcome of police inaction and failure of the government.to uphold and maintain public order.

The Supreme Court has laid down certain guidelines for central and state and has directed them to come out with specific law that deals with mob lynching incidents following these directions of Supreme Court,Manipur  became first state in India to come out with specific anti mob lynching law and followed by Rajasthan and West Bengal.There are provisions under IPC and Crpc which allows mob lynching laws to be treated as Hate crime and does provide for punishment but problem is, these laws are not enforced by center as well as state government.It is this failure in enforcement which has lead to repeated incidents of mob lynching.