Can't a girl join the army?

I m sorry I don't have much idea about armies n also m not from India. But can't a girl join the army? In shows like Left Right Left, there were female cadets getting army training. Also if not army then Air Force may be? Anjali cud have joined any of these two-going by what I have seen in hindi shows. These wasn't any reason for the father to not love her (or may b he does love but is majorly disappointed 😕 ) I wish there was more to the father being cold towards Anjali than just being a daughter.

Yes, my dear, women can join the Army in India but not go into actual combat. They can do that in the Israeli Army and the US one as well, if I am not mistaken.

If you feel like it, take a look at my brief post on Nels' thread, at

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/115492063

where I have mentioned this point.

Now, of course, there is the additional angle of Brig Rawat, a keen mountaineer, after the 1999 Kargil war, having been injured while saving many fellow soldiers and thus having had to abandon his dream of climbing Mt.Everest.

But why does he keep harping on his idee fixe that only a son could have climbed Everest in his place? Many Indian women have climbed Everest over the last 20 years - Bachendri Pal, Arunima Singh, Premlata Agarwal, to mention just a few, with the star of the lot being the 13 year old Malavath Poorna just this last July who is now the YOUNGEST person to have become an Everest summitteer (see below for text of report on her success), and she wants to become a policewoman! The photos did not copy here, but you can see the report itself at

https://www.people.com/article/13-year-old-indian-girl-climbs-mount-everest-youngest-ever-malavath-poorna

But Brig. Rawat seems to have never heard of them! 😡

But I suppose such certified neanderthals do exist all over the world, and to soften his image, they have made it a point to emphasise his great courage and spirit sacrifice in rescuing so many comrades in arms at the repeated risk of his own life.

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Indian Girl, 13, Becomes the Youngest Person to Climb Mount Everest

Malavath Poorna at a ceremony in New Delhi, India

Altaf Qadri/AP

By Andrea Billups

06/07/2014 02:30PM

A 13-year-old Indian girl, raised in poverty as the daughter of farm workers, has become the youngest person to reach Mount Everest's summit.

Malavath Poorna, who lives in a small tribal village and learned to climb at her school, completed the dangerous Himalayan mountaineering journey on May 25 at the age of 13 years, 11 months - just one month younger than the previous record-setter, an American boy who made the climb in 2010, the BBC reports.

Her record-breaking climb comes just a month after 16 sherpa guides died in the famed peak's deadliest avalanche ever.

"When I reached the top, I felt too much emotion, too much joy," the teen tells PEOPLE via phone as she describes being overcome with awe after scaling the world's highest mountain, at 29,029 feet. "All around me, beauty - mountains, sunshine, clouds. I could feel God there. I was grateful and too happy."

A major challenge of the expedition, she says, was not the cold or discomfort but the packaged food they had to consume.

"I did not like its smell or taste," she explained. "I [wanted] to go home and eat my mother's food."

But perhaps most terrifying on her ascent was passing the remains of those climbers who did not make it.

"I saw six dead bodies," she told reporters at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. "I was shocked. Oh, my god!"

But she soldiered forth bravely as she thought about her school and her family. "I got some fear and immediately I remember my secretary, my parents ... and I got my courage and strength, energy," she said.

Her school, a part of the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions, trained Poorna and several other students from her region for the climb.

When she returns home in a few days from the Indian capital, Poorna plans to catch up on the schoolwork she's missed, she tells PEOPLE. She'd eventually like to become a law-enforcement official in homage to a retired policeman who introduced her and other schoolchildren to mountaineering.

"When I finish my studies, I want to join the police because [of him]," she says. "It will be my thank-you to him for changing my life."

With reporting by AMRIT DHILLON

Originally posted by: Pranii

I m sorry I don't have much idea about armies n also m not from India. But can't a girl join the army? In shows like Left Right Left, there were female cadets getting army training. Also if not army then Air Force may be? Anjali cud have joined any of these two-going by what I have seen in hindi shows. These wasn't any reason for the father to not love her (or may b he does love but is majorly disappointed 😕 ) I wish there was more to the father being cold towards Anjali than just being a daughter.

@sashashyam: Thank u so much :)

Girls can definitely join the Army.. It's just that Jagath Singh Rawat wanted a boy to carry forward his lineage.. That is why he always taunts Anjali some or the other way..

You are welcome, my dear.

I only wish they show something, at least during Anjali's training course at the NIM, about the women, both Indian and foreigners, who have got to the top of the world, beginning with that Japanese lady, Junko Tabei, who was the first woman to climb to the Everest summit.

In his otherwise wonderful film. Jodhaa Akbar, Ashutosh Gowarikar made it look as if Jodha was Akbar's first wife, whereas he already had 2 chief queens, Ruqaiya Sultan Begum and Salima Sultan Begum, at the time when he married Jodha, not to speak of many lesser begums and any number of concubines.I hope that he is not going to do a repeat here, and try and make it out as if Anjali was doing something never done before by a girl!

Think of that 13 year old at 29029 feet!

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: Pranii

@sashashyam: Thank u so much :)

A girl can definately join army.. its just they dont go in infantry and war front..they are given table jobs and in fact women in army gets promotions sooner than their male counterparts.. 😊

Of course a girl can join army... But usually people don't want their daughters to join army as it is typically considered as a man's job