Gen Bipin Rawat: Army not yet prepared for ladies in battle roles

Pune, Nov 30 The Indian Army isn't yet ready to have women in battle jobs, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said Friday.

The Army chief said there are a few different fields where the Army was thinking of inducting women.

"We are not yet prepared for that (women in battle roles) as offices must be made inside... Ladies additionally should be set up for that kind of hardships," he said.

"It is difficult. Let us not compare ourselves and Western countries, which are more open," Gen Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of the Passing Out Parade of the 135th course at the National Defence Academy (NDA) here.

There were plans to have women as interpreters, the Army chief said.

"Yes, we might be more open in our big cities, but our Army personnel are not coming from big cities only. They are coming from rural areas as well, where the intermingling, which is expected, is still not there," he said.

"Women officers are being accepted into all the three administrations. However, what we need to choose is whether some of them can be given lasting commission," Gen Rawat said.

The Army has taken a call that there are a few angles and fields where "we require some kind of congruity and permanency," he said.

"In a command-oriented army, male officers do not fit the bill everywhere. The Army needs dialect translators as military discretion is gaining ground.The essential necessity is understanding the dialect while conversing with different countries, military to military. So we are looking for ladies as interpreters," he said.