While the fact that more women are joining the Indian Navy has been and continues to be celebrated, the need to change the nomenclature of the ranks has been felt strongly recently.
Indian Navy Chief Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar has revealed that a proposal has been submitted to the Ministry of Defence that since women sailors cannot be addressed as seamen, it was time to make the ranks/titles gender-neutral.
With women now being inducted into the Navy, it is hoped that there will be a woman chief of naval staff in three decades’ time. There is a woman commanding officer already in a Goa-based ship
It has now been suggested that the ranks of seamen class I, seamen class II should be changed to nausainik class I or nausainik class II to make the ranks gender neutral.
Till now, the rank nomenclature from the British era was being followed. The naval chief said that it was time to change all that and introduce more of Indian heritage.
While speaking at the inauguration of a new administrative building of the Naval War College (NWC) at Verem in North Goa, the chief admiral revealed how all branches of the Navy are now open to women. He also revealed that over the last one year, about 1,124 women sailors have joined and are preparing to board ships.
