Two all-women contingents to parade in this year’s Republic Day

An all-female National Cadet Corp contingent will march on this year’s Republic Day parade. The contingent will be followed by a band of 45 cadets confirmed officials on Tuesday. The contingent will comprise of 148 female cadets including the band of 45 cadets.

For this year’s Republic Day celebrations, about 2,069 cadets have participated of which 695 are women. Of this, one all-male contingent and all-female contingent with strength of 148 each will participate in the Republic Day Parade. Plus, one all-male band of 90 cadets and all-female band of 45 cadets will also participate in the Republic Day Parade,” announced the Director General of the Corps, Lieutenant General Aniruddha Chakravarty during the annual press conference, reported AsiaOne.

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In order to improve the gender imbalance in the force, The NCC is taking initiatives to recruit more female cadets. The government has started a five-phase programme wherein in each phase 40,000 new cadets will be raised in various areas. In this programme, the female cadet strength is going to reach 33% in the forces. The new cadet forces will be raised in the coastal areas in the west, the areas affected by left-wing extremism and insurgency apart from those bordering Pakistan and Nepal.

The NCC also plans to send its female cadets to climb the Mt. Everest peak this year while a group of 91 cadets from different countries will also visit India in a Youth Exchange Programme.

“Some 15 cadets will be trained at the Army Mountaineering Institute at the Siachen Base Camp in May-June this year before mission,” affirmed Chakravarty in a report by Economic Times.

The trend of having an all-women contingent on the Republic Day started last year. It was marked as historical as nothing of this sort had ever happened before. And this year the numbers of female cadets have only grown.

Picture Credit-  Veooz