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IAF salutes women flying officers on International Women’s Day

Kashmir Times. Dated: 3/9/2018 12:35:03 AM

NEW DELHI, Mar 8 (Agencies): As the world marks International Women’s Day, the Indian Air Force has released a video saluting the women in service. “Every woman inspires, nurtures and supports, but some wear overalls and combats boots as well,” said that IAF in the video, which features flying officer Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, who have emerged as the most recognisable faces in the force.
Apart from flying jets, the video shows women IAF personnel attending classes at fighter training wing along with their male counterparts. It also features women personnel handling ground operations of the Indian Air Force.
The song titled ‘zameen se chalein hum aasmaan ke kareeb’ runs a little over 2 minutes and captures everything from women officers flying IAF aircraft to taking part in parades.
This comes just days after flying officer Avani Chaturvedi created history by becoming the first Indian woman fighter to fly solo. She flew a MiG-21 Bison in her first training solo sortie in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
She is one of the three in the first batch of female pilots, besides Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, who were inducted in Indian Air Force fighter squadron on June 18, 2016. The IAF had termed it as a unique achievement for the force and the country.
It was in October 2015 that the Government took the decision to open the fighter stream for women. Meanwhile, combat roles in the Army and the Navy are still off-limits for women, due to a combination of operational concerns and logistical constraints.
On December 16, 2017 two women from the second batch to enter the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force were commissioned after graduating from the Air Force Academy, Dundigul.
It was only in 1992 that the armed forces began recruiting women to streams, other than the Medical stream.