The Women Special Entry Scheme (WSES), till now the only route through which women could join the Army, stands scrapped. All women will now be inducted along with their male counterparts through the Short Service Commission (SSC). The long-delayed notice was finally issued by Army Headquarters on July 20, just days ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

With the merger of WSES with the SSC, entry qualifications for men and women become the same, though there will be 75 vacancies for women officers. Five per cent of the SSC entry for women will be reserved for war widows, who will be allowed to apply directly without having to go through the written test.

The terms of the SSC will remain the same: 10 years service with an additional four years, with the option to leave at the end of five years or 10 years for women. The training period for women will however go up from the existing 24 weeks to 49 weeks, at par with their male counterparts. They will also be part of a common merit list and there will be no relative seniority as the training period for both male and female officers will be the same.

The Cabinet had approved the merger of WSES with SSC in August last year. Last month, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee reminded the Army Headquarters to issue the notice at the earliest. Giving its nod for the merger, the Cabinet had said scrapping the move would ‘‘bring about a parity with the existing time-scale promotions available to the Permanent Commissioned Officers and meet the career aspirations of Short Service Commissioned officers’’. Under the WSES, women officers could not be promoted beyond the rank of Captain.

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