00:00 What could be more thrilling than flying a fighter jet or a combat chopper while protecting
00:18 the skies of the motherland?
00:19 Well, this Women's Day, we bring you the stories and valor of some of the bravest women
00:24 in modern era who never settled for anything less than the free skies.
00:28 India was one of the earliest countries in the world to inject women into the air force.
00:32 While women in several other countries were fighting for equal voting rights, women in
00:36 India were training shoulder to shoulder with men in the Indian armed forces.
00:41 You must have heard about Gunjan Saxena and Sri Vidya Rajan who proved their mettle in
00:45 the battlefield in the Kargil war of 1999.
00:48 They were among the first female pilots to be engaged in a combat duty in India.
00:52 But before these brave women, there were several others who had fought their way into the air
00:57 force and had established norms that would be unmatched not only by the Indians but by
01:02 the whole world.
01:03 So, today we are going to talk about few such women whose stories have not got much recognition
01:08 from today's generation despite being so motivational.
01:12 Vidya Lakshmi Ramanan The first woman officer in the Indian air force
01:17 was Vidya Lakshmi Ramanan.
01:18 Born on 27th February of 1924 in present-day Chennai, she joined the army medical corps
01:24 in 1955 as a surgeon.
01:26 Later on, she was seconded to the air force as a gynecologist and then in 1971, she became
01:32 the first woman to be promoted to the rank of an officer.
01:35 With the Indian air force not having uniforms for women officers at the time of her commissioning,
01:40 she custom tailored a sari and a blouse with the air force colours that then became the
01:44 standard dress code for women officers.
01:47 After serving for 24 years in the armed forces, she retired as a wing commander in 1979.
01:53 On 26th January 1977, she was awarded the Vashisht Seva Medal for distinguished service
01:58 of a high order by the then Indian President Neelam Sanjeev Reddy for her treatment of
02:03 women and children affiliated with the Indian armed forces.
02:06 Not only Vidya Lakshmi, several other brave women played crucial roles in various counter-insurgency
02:11 operations as well as in the wars against our neighbour Pakistan.
02:14 In August 1966, flight lieutenant Kanta Handa, a medical officer, became the first female
02:20 IAF officer to receive a commendation for her service during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan
02:25 War.
02:26 Padmavati Bandopadhyay As the years passed, the role of women in
02:30 the Indian air force increased and gradually they even got promoted to the higher ranks.
02:35 One such woman was Padmavati Bandopadhyay, the first woman Air Marshal of the Indian
02:39 Air Force.
02:40 She joined air force in 1968 and completed her Defence Service Staff College course in
02:44 the year 1978, becoming the first woman officer to do so.
02:48 Not only that, she was also the first woman officer to become an aviation medicine specialist,
02:54 the first woman to conduct scientific research at the North Pole and last but not the least,
02:58 she was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for her meritorious service during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan
03:03 War.
03:04 Flight Lieutenant Nivedita Chaudhary Flight Lieutenant Nivedita Chaudhary became
03:08 the first woman from the Indian Air Force to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the
03:12 first woman from Rajasthan to achieve this feat.
03:15 It was in October 2009 that Chaudhary, an Air Force officer who had just joined the
03:19 squadron in Agra, casually volunteered for the Air Force's program for women's expedition
03:24 to the Everest.
03:25 She in an interview told that she never knew that three years down the line she would do
03:29 what no woman in the Air Force had ever done.
03:32 The other women on her team, Squadron Leader Nirupma Pandey and Flight Lieutenant Rajika
03:37 Sharma also climbed the peak five days later.
03:40 Deepika Mishra In 2006, Deepika Mishra became the first
03:45 Air Force woman pilot to train for the helicopter aerobatic team, SARANG.
03:49 It was during a passing out parade at Air Force Academy in December 2006 that Deepika
03:54 Mishra, then a flight cadet, first fell in love with the aerobatic displays of the Suraj
03:58 Idams and SARANGs, Air Force's fixed-wing and rotary-wing aerobatic display teams.
04:03 When the Air Force sought women pilots to volunteer for the SARANG team in 2010, she
04:08 grabbed the chance and was among the first to be inducted into the indigenous Advanced
04:12 Light Helicopter Squad.
04:13 On 15 August 2022, she was confirmed with the Vayu Sena medal, becoming perhaps the
04:19 first woman to bag this prestigious award.
04:22 The stories of women who showed exemplary efforts in the Indian Air Force cannot be
04:26 included in a single video.
04:27 And while we spend a normal day at home, more new stories are being created.
04:32 However, these are not just any stories, but the real-life experiences of some of the bravest
04:36 women that any armed forces in the world have ever seen.
04:40 And now, the Air Force has opened its door for women, even for its elite special force
04:44 unit, the Garud.
04:45 Although they will be parachuting down with men, but in fact, they will be climbing new
04:50 heights with each parachute.
04:51 We hope you would like this new video.
04:52 Thank you so much for watching.
04:52 We hope you would like this new video.
04:53 Thank you so much for watching.
Comments