New Delhi: Twenty per cent of the first of batch recruits in the Indian Navy under the short-term, contractual Agnipath scheme, will be women.
They would be sent to different parts and branches of the Navy, officials told news agency ANI on Tuesday.
For the first time ever, the Indian Navy is recruiting women as sailors who would also be deployed on warships.
Government officials told ANI on Monday that nearly 10,000 women have already registered themselves.
After the registrations, the Navy will hold the online application process between 15 and 30 July.
The Navy will then finalise women candidates among the 3,000 naval Agniveers that it will induct in 2022.
20% of candidates will be women to form the first batch of Agniveers for the #AgnipathRecruitmentScheme. They would be sent to different parts and branches of the Navy: Navy Officials
— ANI (@ANI) July 5, 2022
Officials said the Agnipath scheme in the Navy would be gender neutral. “As we speak, 30 women officers are sailing onboard frontline warships. We have decided that the time has come to recruit women sailors as well, and in all trades which will include women who will go to sea.”
The Agnipath scheme, announced on 14 June, provides for the recruitment of youth between seventeen-and-half years and 21 years for four years in the defence services. Only 25 per cent of the recruits would continue for 15 more years while the rest would be released.
After a lot of heartburn that reflected in widespread violence, the government later increased the upper age to 23, but only for 2022, and also encouraged corporates and state police to give jobs to those who would be let off.
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