Even as the Indian armed forces continues to disallow its women soldiers into roles of combat, today, India will witness women take a giant leap towards the goal of securing the skies for their motherland. In October 2015, the government decided to open the fighter pilot stream for women on an experimental basis for five years. Since then, the three women in their early twenties, who were selected from a batch of 125, have been undergoing gruelling training – from 4 am to 10 pm for almost a year – in order to become the country’s first fighter pilots. Avani Chaturvedi from Madhya Pradesh, Bhawana Kanth from Bihar and Mohana Singh from Rajasthan are currently undergoing Stage-II training in Kiran Intermediate Jet Trainers at Hakimpet Air Force station in Hyderabad.

The tough journey till “fully ops”

    Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh have already scripted history by becoming the first-ever....