Why Armed Forces Struggle To Provide Safe Workspaces For Women
Does the entrenched notion of masculine solidarity in the military create room for misogynistic behaviour? In view of a recent case, we look at how these attitudes impact the effective application of sexual harassment laws
The unsympathetic and ineffective handling of a recent sexual assault case in the Indian Air Force can be traced to the broader acceptance of misogyny, and notions of masculine entitlement and solidarity in the military, say experts. This bias endangers workspaces for women in the armed forces, already protected by opaque justice procedures, they add.
On September 8, a woman officer posted at the Air Force Station, Srinagar, filed an FIR against a Wing Commander alleging rape. In her complaint, she alleged “continuous harassment, sexual assault, and mental torture” over the last two years by the authorities. The grievance was compounded by the process of pursuing redressal. She alleged the Internal Committee’s dismissal of the case came without due consideration, and the system was complicit in ensuring that “everyone was aiding the sexual offender…”
There have been at least 100 cases alleging sexual abuse within defence spaces since 2004, per government data tabled in the Rajya Sabha. Most cases were dismissed; and in less than a dozen cases superior officers were found guilty and dismissed from service. The Madras High Court in 2023 noted the current legal redressal system did little to protect victims and was largely ineffective given the power hierarchies and realities of sexual offences within armed forces. To remedy this, it directed the Ministry of Defence to ensure the existence of Internal Complaints Committee in compliance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prohibition, Prevention and Redressal) Act, 2013.
The latest case has triggered an examination of the application of and compliance with sexual harassment laws in a male-centric culture.
Following the recent complaint, the Jammu and Kashmir police booked the Wing Commander under Section 376 (2) of the Indian Penal Code, which applies to sexual assault and rape committed by members of the armed forces. The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh granted anticipatory bail to the accused on September 14, citing that his arrest will “jeopardise” his reputation as well as service career.
The IC’s conduct in the case goes “against the essence” of the Vishaka Guidelines and the PoSH Act, says Prerna Dhoop, an assistant professor of law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. In addition to the delays and “inherent bias” against the complainant, she notes there was an “overemphasis on the requirement of testimony by eyewitnesses”. Despite provisions of the PoSH Act, the accused was not transferred nor were work spaces separated to shield the woman during the investigation. The accused individual was evidently “protected… under the guise of maintaining the military organisation’s reputation and prestige”, she says.
Justice systems in the military operate with a degree of opacity: there is little information in the public domain about the composition, formation, or proceedings of its ICC, says Rutuja Shinde, a PoSH trainer with the Outcast Collective, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting and advisory firm. “We don’t really have any insight on how these committees are formed, what kind of decisions they take, if they have been sensitised, or how often audits take place to check if the committees are in place or not”.
This is the first article in our new series ‘Safe Workplaces’ where we explore the imagination of safe workplaces from a gendered lens. The series also examines what constitutes a workplace, the structures that scaffold them and the challenges and barriers.
‘Against Essence Of PoSH Act’
The Srinagar incident took place on December 31, 2023, at a new year’s party held at the Officers’ Mess at the Air Force Station, according to the complaint. The Wing Commander called the officer to a room, where she was “forced” to perform a sexual act. She added that: “… the incident and nightmares put me in the dilemma of whether to discuss or be quiet, finally I took a call and decided to fight.” An Internal Committee was assembled on April 2, 2024, two months after she filed a complaint; the investigation concluded on May 15.
The complainant alleged multiple lapses on the IC’s part, including procrastination. “Medical examination was not done till the time I insisted multiple times,” she said, and was conducted on the last day of the investigation. The IC refused to consider the fact that one witness was made to “run away” from the camp before he could attest her testimonial. The IC’s verdict: it is “inconclusive that the incident happened or not” owing to a “lack of eyewitness”. The woman officer’s complaint suggested a “bias of Station authorities” and IC’s failure to do its job “as directions had come from higher formation to keep the result as neutral”.
Justice in the military is governed through different legal standards. A 2007 Act facilitated the formation of the Armed Forces Tribunal which had powers to hear disputes and complaints related to issues faced by members of the services “including commission, appointments, enrolments and conditions of service”. Army courts are authorised to try personnel for all offenses, except the murder and rape of a civilian, which are dealt with by civilian courts of law.
Rape, harassment, or abuse within the military thus fall under the purview of army courts. On previous instances of reported sexual abuse, Courts of Inquiry have been constituted under Rule 180 to review evidence and they are akin to “fact-finding enquiry committees”, an Armed Forces Tribunal New Delhi had held earlier.
In a 2021 case in Coimbatore, a woman Lieutenant in the Air Force was allegedly raped by a Flight Lieutenant, per a Hindu report. She was also asked to take the two-finger test at the Air Force Hospital and only found later that the test is not required to ascertain rape. But despite the formation of a fact finding committee, the woman officer was compelled to withdraw her complaint twice. She eventually filed a police report.
Also, commitment to national service takes precedence over personal rights. Article 33 of the Constitution of India, 1950, read in accordance with respectively the Navy, Army and Air Force Acts, empower the armed forces to restrict and abrogate the application of fundamental rights to its personnel in order to “maintain proper discharge of duties and discipline them”.
For a victim of sexual abuse within the military system, the route to justice includes engagement with the ICC, Court of Inquiry, and the police if they think fear for their safety.
“ICCs at the end of the day are just people within an organisation; they don’t have the powers like the police to provide protection. The complainant will have to go to the police if they think that their person is in danger, or they think that there is some threat to their safety and security,” says Rutuja.
A Unique Workplace
Women have been a part of India’s armed forces, in combat and non-combat roles, for seven decades now. But theirs is a Lilliputian presence in an otherwise male-dominated space: women count for fewer than 10,000 people in the 14-lakh cadre across the navy, air force, and army. There are approximately 1,636 women in the IAF, excluding medical and data branches.
There have been a slew of measures to create gender parity in the armed forces. A Supreme Court ruling in 2020 enabled women to serve as army commanders, work for longer tenures, and access the same benefits as their male colleagues. The contentious Agniveer scheme recruits both male and female candidates. The Central Government plans to replace ‘ex-serviceman’ with gender-inclusive terms. There may soon be a gender-neutral selection board too in the Army.
The military is not usually perceived as a regular workspace because of the nature of its work. “A close look at the military–its purpose, design, operation, personnel, and hierarchical structure–make it a unique workplace, quite different from a regular workplace,” explains Prerna. “Laws like POSH are understood and applied differently because the goal is always to maintain its structure, discipline, and operations rather than to pacify or provide remedy to individual members.”
Scarce Data, Opaque Systems
A review of government records show there is no comprehensive data available on the number, nature, and consequences of sexual abuse case within armed forces. A ‘MeToo’ echo reverberated in the military in 2007. A Major General was found guilty of molesting an officer under his command dismissed from service in 2008. Between 2004 and 2009, the Ministry of Defence said there were 12 reported cases of abuse.
A similar figure was quoted in the Rajya Sabha when asked for data between 2015 and 2017. The most recent figures provided by the ministry show 123 cases were referred to internal committees, and action was taken in 112 cases. The nature of action was not specified. Most of these cases are assumed to be filed by women, and there are no official records of sexual abuse against men in the military.
Cases are often dismissed as “baseless” and without sufficient evidence, based on a review of the defence ministry’s replies in Rajya Sabha. Some responses hinted at “retaliation” against authorities or poor mental health as purported reasons for filing complaints. In 2005, when asked about the harassment of three women cadets at a training academy in Andhra Pradesh, the ministry gave the following response:
“The three Ex-Flight Cadets failed in three or more exams during training…subsequently, the cadetship was terminated.” The allegations of sexual harassment was only raised two weeks later, they said.
In 2006, two women employed at the Northern Command died by suicide; one had brought up sexual harassment charges against superiors weeks before her death, reported Deccan Herald. In 2011, the ministry said: “…the Court of Inquiry has opined that the officer committed suicide due to adjustment problems culminating into her volatile mental state”.
A 2015 paper in the Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences noted the prevalence of discrimination and harassment in the military. “Many times, sexual harassment cases are dismissed as ‘frivolous’ and blame ‘over-sensitivity’ of the women officers,” wrote political scholar Arundhati Bhattacharyya.
The defence ministry has maintained in several communications that it takes “appropriate measures for safety and security of its personnel including women”, and complaints are investigated and dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the respective Services Act.
Complaints to the Central Government or a re-trial under Air Force Act, 1950, however, were ineffective measures in the context of power and privilege of the military, Justice R N Manjula of the Madras High Court noted while ruling on the 2021 Coimbatore case.
The PoSH Act was identified as the appropriate remedy. The Central Government was directed to constitute ICCs in the armed forces, and conduct proper sensitisation and awareness training for all personnel. In July 2023, the government confirmed in a response in Rajya Sabha that ICCs “are functional in all forces, PSUs, Ordinance Boards, Autonomous Bodies, Subordinate Offices and all other organizations under Ministry of Defence”.
‘Militarised Masculinity’
Gender and political scholar Sandra Whitworth in her 2006 book, Men, Militarism & UN Peacekeeping: A Gendered Analysis, explains how in order to survive and kill, military training requires soldiers to create new bonds of brotherhood. This “militarised masculinity” has an impact on the work safety discourse.
To foster camaraderie, militaries construct a racial, sexual, gendered “other”, attributes of whom the soldier must routinely and emphatically reject. In 2020, the Indian Government in 2020 used gender stereotypes ot turn down a plea for women to be promoted to army’s command positions. They argued that women had physical limitations, domestic obligations, and officials (mostly soldiers from rural backgrounds) were not “mentally schooled to accept women officers in command”.
There are numerous instances of excessive violence, harassment, and assault by armed personnel within the forces and over groups it maintains control. Among other cases, BehanBox had reported about rape and assault perpetrated by military forces against Adivasi women in Bastar.
The military’s glorification of power, control, and discipline may act as in-built deterrents from reporting violence. “In the army, there’s a certain discipline about how you should treat your seniors, how much you can and cannot speak against them…to raise your voice against not just a person, but a position, makes speaking out way more difficult than in any other organisation,” according to Rutuja.
In her judgement, Justice Manjula had pointed out the contradictions women have to navigate in the military. “In this era of awareness and sensitivity, it is difficult to comprehend that a victim of a sexual offence in the Armed Forces was not comfortable enough to take up her grievance… If the women of the armed forces should not have courage to fight such violence, who else can have?” she said.
Second Class Soldiers?
A 2015 study that surveyed 450 employees in the Indian army found rampant discrimination, sexual harassment, and a culture of treating women as “second-class soldiers” which was traced to the top of the military brass. Till this ended, it said, sexual harassment, assault and even rape would not end.
Social prejudices tend to be mirrored in the military wherein the accused are often given a clean chit by blaming women, Prerna wrote in an article for the EPW. It is common to hear cliches such as ‘men will be men’, ‘women should not dress to attract’, ‘women have to take the risk if they work with men’, or ‘the woman is vindictive’.
The expectations of femininity jostle against the masculine standards of conduct. Arundhati in her paper hints at the confusion this causes: “If they behave lady-like, their acceptance amongst male colleagues is low. On the other hand, their active participation in casual repartee carries the danger of their losing colleagues’ respect, at times,” she observes.
To deal with these dynamics, women entering male-dominated spaces often end up making several negotiations. Some get ‘desexualised’ in the process (“the training killed all my femininity”, said a Major in the Indian army in a 2015 interview); others leave the service, forever feeling like misfits. Prerna points to the fact that there are quite a few women who go along with sexist attitudes to act as an “emotional force to keep up the motivation and zeal of their male counterparts”.
There is also precarity involved in navigating informal work interactions that play out in formal and informal settings. Both the present case in Srinagar and the 2021 IAF case referred to incidents that took place at office parties, settings where traditional ideas of discipline and hierarchy are ambiguous. Rutuja clarifies the law here: As long as the gathering is in the official premises or the official residences of the officers, or has been authorised by the organisation itself, then it falls within the purview of the PoSH Act.
Reimagining A Safe Work Space
Safety and dignity are caught in the crossfire of masculinity and gender-affirmative measures, in India and across the world. In 2017, former veteran and member of the Service Women’s Action Network Antonieta Rico wrote a piece lamenting the neglected voices of military women in the MeToo movement.
What would safety look like in military spaces where patriarchal codes determine women’s presence, expression, and status? The experts BehanBox spoke with call for overhauling the investigation process, incorporating processes that empower complainants, and invest in infrastructures and personnel to prioritise their safety.
“If you have a set-up where the rules were defined by men previously, and women are now entering the workforce, the employer must take higher accountability to create awareness. This is more pertinent for an institution like the armed forces where power dynamics are so stark… and [where] breaking any kind of barrier is seen as a taboo. It is very important to empower women because otherwise the system is very rigid,” Rutuja points out.
More data around the challenges, motivations, and mindsets of women in the military could help prevent violence and foster inclusivity, say experts. Also unclogging the recruitment channels would help – women have been commissioned as officers since the 1990s but they are only now being inducted into the upper echelons.
To counter the opacity within the system, some also suggest setting up independent overwatch bodies and a separate Code of Conduct. The current system allows for “unbridled powers and blanket immunities” to the military, says Prerna. “The PoSH Act and Vishaka Guidelines can be tweaked according to each organisation, but should certainly not be diluted.”
Without safety mechanisms and questioning of the underlying violence, women’s participation in hypermasculine spaces will always amount to subjugation, scholar Shreshtha Das argued in Al Jazeera. A feminist vision, she notes, “calls for critical engagement with the institution of armed forces, which goes beyond a liberal imperial notion of ‘gender equality’.”
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