(S.R.Seshu)
After having started flying helicopters, It took almost a quarter decade for women pilots of the Indian Air Force to turn to the combat mode!
Women pilots have been flying helicopters since 1991 in the IAF, but today three officers–Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, in their early 20s-made history as they have been commissioned as India’s first fighter pilots in a glittering ceremony at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, Hyderabad.
The Modi government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis for five years in October 2015. But combat roles in the Army and the Navy are not opened for women officers due to a combination of operational concerns and logistical constraints. In February 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee had announced that all military combat roles will be opened to women in the future.
Apparently as the first step towards achieving this, the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar commissioned the trio into fighter stream in IAF during the Combined Graduation Parade. The daredevils of the IAF will fly fighter jets like Sukhoi and Tejas next year after completion of stage-III training in Bidar, Karnataka. They had undergone the Stage-II training on Kiran Intermediate Jet Trainers at Hakimpet Air Force station in Hyderabad. The Stage-1 training included about 150 flying hours. The trio, who got selected out of the six contenders, have been asked by the IAF to avoid motherhood for the next four years.
While Avani Chaturvedi of Satna (Madhya Pradesh) and Mohana Singh of Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan) are blessed with armed forces background , Bhawana Kanth of Darbhanga (Bihar) is the daughter of an officer in the Indian Oil Corporation.
Avani’s brother is in the Army and Mohana’s grandfather was a flight gunner in Aviation Research Centre and father is a warrant officer in the IAF.
“We are lucky to have been the first three women fighter pilots. It could have been anyone else,” the energetic fighters told reporters with a lot of confidence.
