Breaking gender barriers: BSF air wing welcomes its first female flight engineer, Inspector Bhawna Chaudhary

In what comes as a historic milestone, the Border Security Force (BSF) air wing has got its first woman flight engineer as Inspector Bhawna Chaudhary, along with four male subordinate officers, were recently awarded their flying badges by BSF Director General Daljit Singh Chawdhary.

 

This marks a significant step in expanding the role of women in India’s paramilitary and aviation sectors. 

 

BSF has been tasked with operating the aviation unit of the home ministry since 1969, and it caters to the operational requirements of all the paramilitary forces and special forces like the NSG and the NDRF.

 

The five subordinate officers were "trained ab-initio by the instructors of the BSF air wing, and they recently completed their two-month long training," officials have been quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

 

The officers were skilled for 130 hours during their two months of in-house training. They also had real exposure to the work as various assets of the BSF air wing flew operational sorties, including during the recent floods in Punjab and other states.

 

"The BSF air wing has been facing a critical shortage of flight engineers in its Mi-17 helicopter fleet. The Indian Air Force (IAF) trained the first batch of 3 subordinate officers, but the second batch of five personnel could not get a training slot there due to various constraints," an official said.

 

The BSF then approached the home ministry, requesting permission to hold an in-house training for preparing flight engineers for its air wing. Following this, five personnel, including Inspector Chaudhary, recently completed their training, the official said.

 

Inspector Chaudhary is the first woman flight engineer of the BSF air wing, he said.

 

—With agency inputs

Defence