Indian Military Academy to induct 1st batch of women officer cadets
Eight of 18 women cadets in their final NDA term have chosen the army and will train at IMA for a year before being commissioned as officers next year.
The 92-year-old Dehradun-based Indian Military Academy (IMA) will induct its first batch of women officer cadets in July 2025 after they graduate from the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Khadakwasla that opened its doors to them for the first time three years ago following a Supreme Court ruling, officials aware of the matter said on Monday.
Eight of the 18 women cadets, who are currently in the sixth and final term of training at NDA, have opted to serve in the army and will join IMA for another year of training before they are commissioned as officers next year, the officials said, asking not to be named. The first batch of women cadets will pass from NDA in May after completing three years of training. They had joined the tri-services academy in August 2022.
NDA currently accounts for 126 women cadets who are in different stages of training.
“IMA will induct women cadets for the first time in almost 93 years, a watershed in its history. It is currently the only military academy in the country that does not train women,” said one of officials cited above.
In August 2021, the Supreme Court directed the government to allow women to take the NDA entrance exam and the first batch was inducted the next year. The order came almost three decades after they were allowed to serve in select branches of the three services as short-service commission (SSC) officers, and 18 months after the top court ruled that women officers who joined the Indian Army through SSC, were entitled to permanent commission and command roles.
Separate accommodation has been earmarked for the women officer cadets at IMA, although they will be assigned to different companies for training alongside their male counterparts, said a second official. “IMA officials have visited several training academies, including the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, and the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala, to scope out different aspects of training women and gender-specific requirements,” he added.
“I don’t foresee any hurdles as the army has been training women at OTA for more than 30 years and similar training standards and practices will be adopted by IMA. Gender-specific requirements will be addressed too. There has been full acceptance of women in the military,” said Lieutenant Colonel Anu Singh Randhawa (retd), who served in the Army Ordnance Corps for 21 years.
Students become eligible to take the NDA and Naval Academy Examination, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), while they are in Class 12. Those who clear the entrance exam must face the Services Selection Board (a rigorous personality and intelligence test spread over five days). The accepted candidates undergo a medical examination before UPSC releases the final merit list.
After training at NDA for three years, split into six terms, cadets head for further training at different academies depending on their choice of service before getting commissioned as officers. Also, there are different types of entries for both men and women to join service-specific academies after completing their graduation.
The women cadets are joining IMA at a time when the service is giving women officers more exposure to new roles for career development. Around 60% of the Indian Army’s women commanding officers (COs) are currently heading units in operational areas, including forward locations in the Northern and Eastern Commands that are responsible for guarding India’s borders.
More than 145 women officers have been approved for the rank of colonel since the army opened command roles to them two years ago. Of them, around 115 women are already heading their units.
But there have been issues. At a time when the armed forces have taken great strides towards correcting gender bias, a top general last year shot off a letter to the eastern army commander complaining about a litany of issues ostensibly plaguing army units commanded by women officers in the sensive eastern sector -- from officer management to a purportedly misplaced sense of entitlement, from a lack of empathy to an exaggerated tendency to complain, and from over-ambition to a lack of ambition.
The unprecedented five-page letter on “command by women officers” — written last October by then 17 Corps commander Lieutenant General Rajeev Puri to Eastern Army Commander Lieutenant General Ram Chander Tiwari — cited an “in-house review” by the Panagarh-based mountain strike corps.
To be sure, women are being assigned central roles on a par with their male counterparts in the armed forces — they are flying fighter planes, serving on board warships, being inducted in the personnel below officer rank (PBOR) cadre, and undergoing training at NDA. But tanks and combat positions in infantry are still no-go zones for women in the army.
