Indian Navy Allows Women To Join Special Forces MARCOS

The Indian Navy has decided to allow women to join its elite special forces for the first time in any of the three defence services, senior officials said on Sunday to a leading media house. 

Some of the toughest soldiers in the army, navy and air force undergo intense training and are capable of mounting a swift and stealthy response in denied territories and have thus far been a male preserve.

Women in the navy who meet the criteria can now become marine commandos (Marcos). It is a watershed moment in Indian military history. However, no one is assigned directly to special forces units, people must volunteer, one of the officials said without revealing their identity. 

Another official said that female officers and sailors who join the service as Agniveers next year would be able to volunteer to become Marcos. Macros have been trained to perform a variety of tasks on land, sea and air.

These commandos can conduct covert operations against enemy warships, offshore installations and other critical assets, as well as observation and reconnaissance missions to aid naval operations. They can also fight terrorists in a maritime environment and have been used in counterterrorism operations in Kashmir's Wular lake area.

The special forces wing is now open to women as the navy prepares to induct women into the personnel below officer rank (PBOR) cadre for the first time.

The navy closely monitors the progress of the first class of Agniveers, including women, at the INS Chilka training facility in Odisha. 341 of the 3,000 Agniveers recruited for the navy were female.

Three decades after the military commissioned its first batch of female officers in the short-service stream, the armed forces have come a long way and are now providing them with a slew of opportunities that have given them new hard-earned identities, empowered them and significantly bridged the gender gap in a traditionally male-dominated field.