The power of One

The lady officers have come from army stations -- where they are only the only women in their unit -- across the country and say they could not have had a better career that gave them experience others their age could never have.

“Like you cannot fire a weapon outside (the armed forces). Where will you get a chance? You cannot fire the L/70. They are huge guns. You feel good,” says 23-year-old Lt Vidya Nair, a native of Bangalore.

Being the only lady officers in a unit of 500 to 700 men does not seem odd, they say. “More and more lady officers are joining the defence forces now. Once we are selected and commissioned we get used to it and take it up as a challenge,” says Lt Neha Singh, whose mother is a teacher in Agra.

Lt Singh wanted to join the army as soon as she finished graduation from Faridabad in Uttar Pradesh and was selected to join the Officers Training Academy in Chennai as a 20 year old.

“Lady officers or male officers -- the thought never crosses our mind because you are treated like an officer,” adds another lady officer.

With her unit posted in Srinagar, Lt Anuradha Mulasi, 24, says: “Otherwise also when people hear she is a girl and she is an army officer, people turn and look at you.”

Her father served in the Air Force and she says as a child she only had one dream -- to join the defence forces.

Reportage: Archana Masih. Photographs: Jewella C Miranda