When It Comes To Women Pilots, India Is Teaching The World How To Fly

Up in the air, Indian women are increasingly in charge. For a country that can't ensure a woman's safety or her basic rights on the ground, the recruitment record of India's airlines presents a contrast. As a result, the next time you take a flight in India, the chances of the pilot being a woman are much higher than anywhere else in the world.

Only 3% of the world's pilots are women

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India currently has 5,100 pilots, of which 600, or 11.7 per cent , are women, according to ministry of civil aviation data. There are a total 130,000 pilots in the world, of which 4,000, or about 3 per cent, are women, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. "This is definitely one trend which flies in the face of global opinion of India as a regressive place for women," said Harpreet Singh Dey, president of the Indian Women Pilots' Association. She's also the first female pilot to operate an international flight by a local carrier, Air India, in 1988.

India loves pilots - men or women

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Families are willing to back girls who want to pursue the profession even regardless of whether they're married or not, she said. "Flying schools are churning out a higher number of women pilots every year. There are many families who are supportive of a woman's career choice as a pilot even after marriage. There are also many women who would happily remain single to follow their passion," Dey said.

Of the 1,100 pilot licences issued in India in 2014, about 170 were to women, an increase of 5 per cent from the year earlier. The number of female pilots in SpiceJet is 15 per cent of the total, said chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor, up from 11-12 per cent two years ago.

"It is a gradual growth. I think it mirrors the increasing numbers of women in the professional workforce as old ways of thinking change," he said. "Parents are also likely more supportive, employers are more gender neutral."

Jet Airways has a pilot force that's 14 per cent women, compared with 12.5 per cent two years ago, said a spokesperson. Between January 2013 and May 2015, 42 female pilots joined the airline, around 15 per cent of the total pilot intake in that period. At IndiGo airlines, 168, or 11 per cent of its 1,448 pilots, are women.

Women pilots, across airlines

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According to a media report last year, British Airways has about 3,500 pilots, of which 200, or 5 per cent , are women. Opportunities for women in the Indian airline industry, once restricted to cabin crew and ground staff, have expanded in only the last few years. Durba Banerjee, India's first woman commercial pilot in 1956, captained a Fokker F27 Friendship in 1966. But the next time a woman became captain was two decades later, when Saudamini Deshmukh became the first to command a Boeing 737. Later, she also became Airbus A320 commander. Dey recalls that conditions during her training period weren't always optimal. "I was in Hisar, Haryana, and here were no women's hostels," she said. "I had to share with men. In my later years I often slept with a knife under my pillow to be safe." The times have changed dramatically since then, Dey said.

How airlines keep women safe and happy

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Airlines now have special contract clauses designed specially for women pilots. "In the field of 24/7 work, mothers here get to choose a Sunday or Saturday off to spend with their kids," said Bavicca Bharathi, a pilot and line training captain with IndiGo. Bharathi holds records for being India's youngest pilot licence holder at 18 in 2007 and also its youngest commander three years later. "We also have flexible contracts providing a variety of options such as 40 hours of flying per month or two weeks off for two weeks of flying. We also have a creche at the training centre for new mothers." She said however that long breaks are a problem as certifications tend to lapse. "Even after a break of 30 days, 'recency' checks are required to get back," she said.

After maternity leave of a year or so, women would have to undertake ground classes and simulator checks all over again. To be sure, the Indian airline industry actively seeks to broaden employment opportunities for women. Every year on International Women's Day, March 8, Air India operates a flight on which all operational aspects-ground handling, engineering, technical support, even the breathalyzer tests for pilots--are handled by women. At IndiGo, 44 per cent of the total workforce and a third of its leadership constitutes women. That ratio is even more balanced at India's newest carrier. "At Vistara, we have a healthy gender ratio of around 50:50 and have observed that women employees play a key role in creating a competitive edge for the business," said S Varadarajan, head of human resources and corporate affairs at the carrier, a joint venture between the Tata group and Singapore Airlines that started flying in January. To be sure, its women pilot share is lower but Vistara expects this to improve. "We already have more than 5 per cent women pilots," Varadarajan said. "We foresee more women aspirants joining us going forward and welcome them."

(Originally published in the Economic Times)