Defence ministry plans to recruit more women officers

Chennai:

The defence ministry is planning to increase the ratio of women officers in the armed forces besides planning series of measures to stem the attrition of officers, according to Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (MoS) Defence and Independent Charge of Youth Affairs and Sports ministry.

Addressing a press conference at Satyamurthi Bhavan, the minister said on Monday that during his visit to Officers training Academy he found that there were only 150 women of the 690 cadets undergoing training at OTA.

Singh said he wanted the lady officers to be brand ambassadors in attracting more women to join the armed forces. He also said that infrastructure is being created at OTA and a new building is coming up.

The minister also expressed concern over high attrition of officers from armed forces. We have nearly 10,000 vacancies in officers’ cadre. “Most of the armed forces personnel retire after a short stint in the armed forces. We want them to serve the forces for a long time,” the minister said.  He said most of the time, the officers are cut off from their family and posted in difficult terrain. We are trying to address the problem through the Married Accommodation Project.

He said the Married Accommodation Project’s (MAP) main aim is to construct married accommodation for the three services with a view to remove over a period of time the complete deficiency of married accommodation for service personnel of the Indian Armed Forces. Under the project, a total of 1.98 lakh  Dwelling Units are being constructed in four phases at an estimated cost of Rs 17,357.97 crore.

To a query on the attack on Indian fishermen by Srilankan navy, the minister said that the fishing boats would soon be provided with global positioning system.

He also said the Indian government is taking initiatives to improve the infrastructure in the border including roads along, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China border.