International Women’s Day: The earliest women pilots in the Indian Air Force who broke the glass ceiling
Initially, there was some apprehension as the Indian Air Force did not know how its first women pilots would respond to military aviation training, but their dedication laid all doubts to rest.
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The first IAF women cadets with their instructors. (Photo: Pamela Pereira)The first batch of women aviators in the Indian Air Force (IAF) who joined the academy in mid-1993 had to break through a glass ceiling of perception and doubts. On International Women’s Day, Wing Commander Pamela Pereira of that maiden batch recounts the journey of the first 13 women flight cadets who joined the IAF to be pilots.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Pereira says that at the time there were already two batches of women ground duty officers who had been undergoing training. “Ours was the first batch to undergo flying training. So while there was some adaptation that had taken place in the academy for women cadets, the flying training was a different ballgame,” she recounts.
The women in the first batch were Anupama Rao, Lakshmi Deepak, Harita Deol, Bindu Sebastian, Sabitha Banu, Priya Nalgundwar, Priya Paul, Veena C K, Archana Kapoor, Anisha Shinh, Shweta Mishra, Anjana Achutan and Pereira. Eventually, seven cadets passed after successful completion of training in December 1994. Some had to be grounded for certain reasons, two suffered from severe airsickness and could not continue flying training. The seven were Pereira, Harita Deol, Anisha Shinh, Archana Kapoor, Bindu Sebastian, Priya Paul and Priya Nalgundwar.
Flight Lieutenant Harita Kaur Deol of the first batch died in an unfortunate accident in December 1996 while flying an HS-748 Avro aircraft. “We had great instructors who had been specially chosen to train our batch. They were exceptionally good and gave us excellent training,” recalls Pereira.
Left to right: Anupama Rao, Lakshmi Deepak, Harita Deol, Bindu Sebastian, Sabitha Banu, Priya Nalgundwar, Priya Paul, Veena CK, Archana Kapoor, Harita Deol, Anisha Shinh, Shweta Mishra, Pamela. (Photo: Pamela Pereira)
Since the IAF did not know how its first women pilots would respond to military aviation training, there was some apprehension. However, all doubts were laid to rest when the dedication of the woman cadets was seen on display.
“It is so good to see women fighter pilots in the IAF now. There were at least two women in our batch who were keen to become fighter pilots and would have been excellent fighter pilots. It is even nicer to see women cadets in the NDA and a woman commanding officer of a helicopter squadron. She is a very good pilot and officer, and the IAF has given her the space to grow in service professionally,” says Pereira.
Since the IAF did not offer permanent commission to women at the time, Pereira served for 14 years and left the service as a Wing Commander. She now flies with IndiGo.
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