GENDER NEUTRAL FROM TOPMAST

After opening its doors to women on warships and its combat units-first as officers and then as sailors/other ranks-the Indian Navy is now sailing towards reducing gender stereotyping' by adopting gender-neutral language in its official communication. 

- Pradip R. Sagar

The navy believes that after the induction of women in all its branches, both as officers and as Agniveers, there is a requirement for adopting gender-neutral language in all official correspondence, policy documents and internal communication. According to figures provided by the ministry of defence in Parliament, 7,093 women personnel are serving in the Indian Army at present, followed by 1,636 in the Indian Air Force and 748 in the Navy.

Taking a cue from the European Parliament's guidelines for gender-neutral language in 2008 and 2018, the naval headquarters has come out with a detailed communiqué. Other countries' navies, too, have been seeing a change in this regard. In August 2020, the Canadian navy introduced gender-neutral designations in an effort to be more inclusive, and replaced 'seaman' with 'sailor' over all ranks. Thus, former designations like Leading Seaman and Master Seaman were changed to Sailor First Class and Master Sailor, respectively.