A Sailor Who Became A Woman After A Sex Change Surgery Is Being Asked To Leave The Indian Navy!
Women officers are also not allowed to serve on board sea-faring warships or join the infantry, artillery and armoured corps in the Army.
A sailor, who felt he was "a woman trapped in a man's body", is facing termination from serving with the armed forces, after the Navy recommended to the defence ministry that "she" be discharged from service.
The sailor in question had recently undergone sex change surgery or gender reassignment, which prompted the Indian Navy to take this extreme measure.
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Confronted with the first-ever such case when the sailor returned to her INS Eksila base in Visakhapatnam after quietly undergoing the surgery in Mumbai late last year, the Navy wants her to be discharged under the SNLR (service no longer required) provision, sources said.
The Navy said the sailor had violated the terms and conditions under which she joined the force as "an Indian male citizen" seven years ago.
Moreover, though the Indian armed forces have been inducting women in small numbers as officers since the early 1990s, only men are recruited as sailors, soldiers and airmen.
Read more: 6 Women Officers From Indian Navy Will Set Sail To Try & Circumnavigate The Earth In September
"There is no specific rule or regulation to deal with such sex-change operations or transgender people in the armed forces. After much deliberations, a show-cause notice, a medical examination and other proceedings, the Navy has decided she cannot continue as a sailor in the force," a source said.
The sailor, who has grown her hair and wears saris, is, for now, attached to the office of the commanding officer of INS Eksila, a Naval marine gas turbine overhaul facility under the Eastern Naval Command.
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"The sailor had joined the Naval mechanical engineering wing seven years ago, got married and even has a child. The sailor, once discharged, will not get any pension because it is mandatory to serve for at least 15 years to become eligible for it," the source said.
What about gender equality?
Though the government says it is now working to "increase the participation of women officers and expand their role" in the armed forces, there is no concrete proposal to recruit them in the lower ranks.
Women officers are also not allowed to serve on board sea-faring warships or join the infantry, artillery and armoured corps in the Army, though three are now undergoing training on fighters in the IAF after getting commissioned last year.
Incidentally, last week, US President Donald Trump formally signed a presidential memo to ban transgender people from joining the US armed forces, and bar the Pentagon from paying for sex-reassignment surgeries and related medical treatment of serving troops, overturning a decision taken by predecessor Barack Obama.
