Reality check- We’re living in the 21st century.
Women? And Army Officers? Still not very common, at least in our country.
According to 2019 figures, women still comprise only 3.8% of the world's second-largest army - compared to 13% of the air force and 6% of the navy. There are some 1,500 female officers compared to more than 40,000 male officers. So who is she and how has she made her mark in this male-dominated field?
A real-life hero, she’s a major league personality in the field where women still hesitate to venture. Lieutenant General (Dr) Madhuri Kanitkar, is a serving General Officer in the Indian Army. Earlier this year she smashed gender norms to become the third Indian woman to occupy the rank of Lieutenant General of Indian Army; the second-highest post in the Armed forces. Before her, only two women have reached this second-most coveted position in the army – Dr Punita Arora, a surgeon vice-admiral and a former 3-star flag officer of the Indian Navy and the Indian Army who was the first woman ever to reach this rank. The second woman is Padma Bandhopadhyay to become the first woman Air Marshal in the Indian Air Force – a rank similar to Kanitkar’s.
She is also the first woman paediatrician to record this feat. Formerly the Dean of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, she currently holds the office for the Integrated Defence Staff, posted in the Chief of Defence Staff, in the headquarters. Kanitkar’s husband Rajeev Kanitkar is also a Lt. General (recently retired). This is the first time in the history of the Indian armed forces that a couple holds the 3-star rank of Lieutenant General (the OG power couple!)
In 1982, she received a degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India. She graduated from Bombay University with a Doctor of Medicine degree in Pediatrics in 1991. Her qualifications are a long list in themselves, namely- MBBS, MD (Paediatrics), VSM DNB (Paediatrics), Fellowship Paediatric Nephrology, Fellow FAIMER, FIAP.
In an interview, she recalls not telling her father about getting into AFMC and writing him a letter after being selected; throwing a tantrum at home and finally convincing her father to let her go back to the institution (we love the spirit). This is where she started from, the rest is history. As a woman, her path wasn’t devoid of struggles along the way. In her own words-your whole training and grooming are to be an officer aka a gentleman, and a lady wife is a lady wife. So, having an officer who is a lady is something which the armed forces was not used to at that time. So, everyone took a little time to adjust especially in the field.” It took some time but “after some time they stopped thinking of me as a woman, then they looked at me as an officer.”
The list of her achievements might be even longer than her qualifications (if that wasn’t long enough!). She happens to be the first trained paediatric nephrologist of the armed forces and has single-handedly set up units to monitor kidney ailments in Pune and Delhi, that too using her own earned leave and short fellowships. She was also the only doctor on the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council. She has been felicitated with the GOC-in-C Commendation Card, and has been awarded the Chief of the Army Staff Commendation Card five times. The list goes on with the Vishisht Seva Medal and Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Presently as the Dean of her Alma mater, she has brought in many welcome changes. From getting proposals of setting up a separate research unit at AFMC dedicated to inculcating research approved, setting up a strong counsellor cell (UMANG) to hosting extra-curricular activities like sports, arts and crafts. She’s literally a super-woman in olive green disguise!
In a country ranked as the world’s most dangerous place for women, a woman like her is the knight in a shining armour for all the girls who are afraid to walk alone on the roads today. She is an inspiration. She is a wonder. She is an Indian Army Officer who has walked through a path laid with thorns with utmost grace and ease.
References and Further Readings
Gender barriers in the Indian army-
Authors-
Aarohi Chauhan and Khushi Agarwal
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