Bhawna Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh are creating history as India’s first women fighter pilots as they will be inducted into the IAF fighter stream in June 2016. They are currently under training and who will make the final cut depends on them clearing the advanced stage training. This was announced by Chief of the Indian Air Force Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Arup Raha. While there are many women pilots serving the IAF as transport and helicopter pilots, this comes as a breakthrough for women who have longed to contribute their skills under extreme outside aggression like their counterparts in US, UAE, Russia and Pakistan. In an interview to NDTV, Raha said that they will be treated as fighter pilots rather than women pilots and there will no soft postings. However,it remains to be seen if women fighter pilots are in fact given mission as daunting and forbidding as are assigned to their male compatriots by the IAF in real wars. Women in the armed forces have still a long way to prove their mettle before they gain respect in every streams without prejudice to their gender. But for now these fighter pilots are creating a wave among young female generations. Chandigarh-based Akshita Bali, who has always admired her father’s profession as a fighter pilot (now retired from the armed forces), she says listening to his experiences to the world brings her immense pleasure and she aspires to be just like her dad in the future. Similarly, it is of a great inspiration to other women and young girls. We hope it will help women come out of their cocoon and fulfill their dreams of serving the nation with distinction.
