Six years after a woman armed forces personnel and a women’s rights body moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to sensitise the authorities that conduct physical examination of young female recruits, the Supreme Court has expressed satisfaction on the steps that the government has taken to protect their privacy and dignity.
One Surya Maudgil and All India Women Democratic Front (AIDF) had filed a PIL in 2005 alleging women joining the armed forces suffer various violations of rights during the medical examinations.
They sought direction to the army authorities to provide “for female gynaecologists and female surgeons for the purposes of gynaecological and surgical examination during the selection.’’
The petition wanted a direction to the armed forces to “carry out gender sensitising programmes’’ so that “other women are not put through a trauma like in the present case.’’
A bench of P. Sathasivam and A.K. Patnaik noted that the directions sought in the PIL had been met, thus no more orders are required. It was alleged that Maudgil had undergone a traumatic experience during her physical examination when male medical experts put her to gynaecological tests.
However, the defence ministry contested the allegations and reiterated that medical examination of a female candidate has always been carried out in a “dignified manner in the presence of a female attendant ensuring full privacy.’’ It said that all the families of service personnel and ex-servicemen are “examined and treated by male as well as female doctors as per availability.’’
However, efforts had been made to “make available as many lady doctors as possible’’ within the authorised cadre structure.
It may be pointed out that the Army Headquarter had issued instructions on August 19, 2002 that dealt with physical standards for women candidates for commission in army.
“Due to rising awareness on the issue of gender sensitivity in society and increasing number of women aspirants for army, the policy of medical examination of female candidates for commission in the army has been reviewed,’’ it said.
This inferred that before 2002 the authorities had some contrary modalities for the physical examination of women entrants. It may be pointed out that earlier entry of women was limited to the Army Medical Corps, the Army Dental Corps and the Military Nursing Service.
It was in 1990 that a decision was taken to induct them into the non-combat wings of the armed forces as short-service commissioned service officers. They are inducted into Engineers, Signals, Army Service Corps, Ordnance, Education, Intelligence, Legal Branch and EME (Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers). Presently, the Indian Army counts 2.44%, the Indian Navy 3% and the Indian Air Force 6.7%.
