Women switch corporate careers to don army uniform

Chennai:

One hundred and five women cadets from the Officers Training Academy were inducted into armed forces on Saturday becoming the largest batch to pass out in recent times.

The women cadets, who were among the 370 cadets to be inducted into the forces, took part in the passing out parade along with their male counterparts marking the culmination of the initial part of the officers’ training before moving on to join operational regiments across the length and breadth of country.

“A lot of the women cadets were working in the corporate sector and they switched over their careers to don the army uniform,” said OTA sources.

Some are engineers, some are specialized in information technology and some have a Masters in business administration, the sources added.

It is not only those women who are highly qualified joining queueing up to join the forces but there are also those who want to keep the family tradition alive by having a member join the armed forces. And Ganeve Lalji, a daughter of Colonnel S S Lalji is one.

“She is the third generation of army officer in our family. Even if we don’t have a son we are proud to have her,” says Major General Lalji D Singh, her grandfather who retired from services in 1993. “I wish I will be alive to see the fourth generation don the olive green,” he says with a grin.

Lt General V K Ahluwalia, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Command, who reviewed the passing out parade, told reporters that now more and more youngsters are coming forward to join the forces. “Who said the youth of the country are not interested to join the armed forces. There is a huge demand but then our selection process is tough as we don’t want to compromise on quality,” he said.

“By next year we will also have the first batch of 135 cadets graduating as officers from Officers Training academy in Gaya,” he said.

He also said with the change in technology there is also a need to modernize our defence forces.

The parade was commanded by Academy under officer Abhinav Shukla, who earned this distinction by performing best on the course.