Maintaining that it was a matter of immense pride for India to see its first batch of women fighter pilots to be inducted into the Indian Air Force, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratula
Maintaining that it was a matter of immense pride for India to see its first batch of women fighter pilots to be inducted into the Indian Air Force, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated the freshly commissioned pilots.
“It is a matter of immense pride and joy to see the first batch of women fighter pilots being inducted in our Air Force. More power to them,” Mr Modi tweeted. The Prime Minister was commenting on the induction of three women — Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh — as the first women fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force. They were commissioned at a function at Air Force Academy in Dundigal on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
“It is a golden letter day,” said defence minister Manohar Parrikar, asserting that “step-by-step”, “total gender parity” will be achieved in the armed forces in the coming years. Each female cadet has cleared the first stage of training and performed about 150 hours of flying. The cadets will now head to IAF’s centre in Bidar city of southern Karnataka for the third phase of their training. They will train on Hawk advanced jet trainers and graduate to flying supersonic warplanes.
Six female cadets were competing to become fighter pilots after the government, in a landmark move, approved an IAF plan to induct them as fighter pilots. However, only three female trainees were selected for the fighter stream. “This is just the beginning. Slowly, women in large numbers will be part of the armed forces,” Mr Parrikar had told reporters earlier this week.
