a major breakthrough, the Ministry of Defence has decided to induct women as sailors in the Indian Navy.
Women will soon be enrolled as non-officer cadre. According to sources, the move was by suggested by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a naval conference. Navy chief Sunil Lanba is learnt to have accepted the proposal.
Recently, a six-women crew of the INSV Tarini became the first Indian all-woman crew to successfully circumnavigate the globe.
The expedition was sailed in six legs, with stopovers at the Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falkland Islands), Cape Town (South Africa) and Mauritius over a period of 254 days.
In 2015, the government also approved induction of women as fighter pilots in Indian Air Force that made it first and the only armed force in India to put women in combat roles.