Women in NDA
Context:
- The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government to explain the admission of merely 19 women in the prestigious National Defense Academy (NDA) for 2022.
- A Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul made it clear to Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Union, to come clear why the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) had restricted women’s admissions to just 19 for the year.
- The court also asked the Centre to place the figures on record the total number of candidates, including women, who appeared in the NDA, Rastriya Indian Military College (RIMC) and Rastriya Military School (RMS) entrance tests.
Background:
- The apex court’s order making women eligible to join NDA, which was formally inaugurated 66 years ago and was thus far a male preserve, came almost three decades after they were allowed to serve in select branches of the army, air force and navy as short-service commission (SSC) officers.
About NDA
- The National Defense Academy (NDA) is the joint defense service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services i.e. the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force train together before they go on to respective service academy for further pre-commission training.
- The NDA is located in Khadakwasla, Pune, Maharashtra. It is the first tri-service academy in the world.
- The Supreme Court of India passed an order in August 2021 that allowed female candidates to appear for the 5 September 2021 NDA entrance examination.
- Cadets who are accepted and successfully complete the program are sent to their respective training academies for one year of training before granting of commission: army cadets go to Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun, air force cadets to Air Force Academy (AFA) at Dundigal, Hyderabad, and naval cadets to Indian Naval Academy (INA) at Ezhimala, Kerala.
Source: THE HINDU.
