Addressing his first annual conference after taking over as Chief of Army Staff, Bipin Rawat made strong remarks about women presence in frontline combat roles.

Rawat said, “It’s up to women to decide if they are willing to join men in frontline combat role without separate and additional facilities. He further added that when out on tanks, the men sleep under the tank during the night with no separate facility and there are no toilet facilities when they go out on patrol.”

As a part of his first speech, he also added, “You have to see society as a whole. I have said that if we induct women into a combat role, they will have to share equal responsibility like their male counterparts because equal opportunity must come with equal responsibility. The three men crew has a stove. They cook and sleep under that tank. That is how they do.”

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