he women are performing really well in all the fields starting from house hold management to space shuttle.. Three top private banks have women as their CEOs namely Shikha Sharma as CEO & MD of Axis bank, Chanda Kochhar CEO & MD of ICICI bank and Naina Lal Kidwai as India country head of HSBC. In politics also the women are powerful and performing as Chief Ministers of states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and in the recent past the Chief Minister of UP was also women. Not only the fields of politics and banks but all the fields like Medicine, Engineering, Pharmaceuticals, Management, Defense and Pare-Military forces have attracted women and they performed very well and in some cases they have outnumbered and performed better than their male counterpart.

The Indian Armed Forces consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force. Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by three paramilitary organizations (Assam Rifles, Indian Coast Guard and Special Frontier Force) and various inter-service institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces.

The Indian Armed Forces, which for long was considered a male dominated workplace, now has confident, bold women, molding into every role and setting examples for future generations. Lieutenant General Puneeta Arora, a lady officer from the Army Medical Corps, heads the prestigious defense institution, the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), in Pune. Padmavathy Bandopadhyay was the first woman Air Marshal of the Indian Air Force. The role of women in the armed forces for a long time, was limited to the medical profession i.e. doctors and nurses. In 1992, the doors were thrown open for women entry as regular officers in aviation, logistics, law, engineering and executive cadres. Three wings of armed forces have women officers ranging between appx 3.3 % to 10.4 % of the total present strength of the officers. Women officers in the armed forces are performing very well and exhibiting their responsibility and duties shoulder to shoulder with their male counter parts. Even though 20 years have passed there is no policy and scheme made by Indian Government to induct women in combat role and as PBORs in their three fleets of armed forces.

Bright, young and energetic men and women make up the bulk of manpower in the armed forces. Recruitment is voluntary, which implies that every citizen of India is eligible to be a part of it, provided he/she fulfils the specified criteria for selection. Caste, region or religion, do not come in the way of the selection process, thereby making it a heterogeneous work place. The current study will evaluate the possibility for women as combat fighter in the armed forces of India. The also investigate the perception of the army officials (i.e., Officers, Women officers, Physiologists) about the same.

The study will be divided into six parts. The first part discusses the overview of the study. The second part reveals the literature. The third section reveals the objectives of the study. The forth section depicts the methodology used for the purpose of the study. The sixth part shows the analysis of the data and the last part uncovers the conclusion for the study.

A number of scholars evaluated the participation of women in the armed forces at the both levels (i.e., technical and operations). Cook (2006) stated that Women have played many roles in the military for over 3,000 years in a large number of cultures and nations. Despite various, though limited, roles in the armies of past societies, the role of women in the military, particularly in combat was very limited and it is only recently that women have begun to be given a more prominent role in contemporary armed forces. The debate is on as numbers of countries begin to expand the role of women in their armed forces. The status of women in the armed forces of the important countries of the world is as follows in the subsequent paragraphs. The other scholars also supported the fact and discuses the past condition and future possibility of women in the armed forces. argued that the current tally of woman in the Russian Army is standing at around 115,000 to 160,000, representing 10% of Russia's military strength. The only nation to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was Russia. British took the lead in 1938 worldwide in establishing uniformed services for women. By August, 1941, women were operating the fire-control instruments; they were never allowed to pull the trigger, as killing the enemy was considered to be too masculine. More than 500,000 women were volunteer uniformed auxiliaries in the German armed forces in 1944-45. In the Luftwaffe they served in combat roles helping to operate the anti -aircraft systems that shot down Allied bombers. The reports of the different armed research organizations also evaluated the position of the women in the armed forces. WSIDF (2010) reveals that Israel is currently the only country in the world with a mandatory military service requirement for women Roles for women beyond technical and secretarial support started to open up in the late 1970s and early 1980s.In 2000, Equality amendment to the Military Service law granting equal opportunities in the military to women found physically and personally suitable for a job in 2000. Women started to enter combat support and light combat roles in a few areas, including the Artillery Corps, infantry units and armored divisions. In his study Campbell (1993) depicts that the United States is considered a pioneer and a trend-setter as regards to induction of women in the services. There are approximately 200,000 American women on active duty in the US armed forces. They constitute nearly 20 percent of its strength. Women are also participating in Iraq operations in large numbers. 15% women are the part of French armed forces The role of women in the French military grew in 1914 with the recruitment of women as personnel in the combined branches of the French military. They are 11% of the Army forces, 13% for the Navy, 21% of the Air Force and 50% of the Medical Corps. This is the highest proportion of female personnel in Europe. It has been reported in the (Girls in the army: Norway passes bill on mandatory military service for women, 2014) that women in Norway have been in defense since 1938, and during the Second World War both enlisted women and female officers served in all branches of the military. Between 1977 and 1984, the Norwegian Parliament passed laws expanding the role of women in the Norwegian Armed Forces. In 1995, Norway allowed women to serve on its military submarines, The Parliament of Norway plans conscription for women on equal terms with men in 2015.Singapore also allows women to serve in combat roles. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) was the first service of the Sri Lankan military to allow women to serve followed by Army in 1979 with the establishment of the Sri Lanka Army Women's Corps (SLAWC). Not only in the western countries but in the asian countries also participation of women in the armed forces has been discussed in the research. Pakistan is the only country in the Islamic world to have women appointed in the high ranking assignments and the general officer ranks, as well as performing their military duties in the hostile and combat military operations. Staff editorial report (2006) reveals that women have been taking part in Pakistan military since 1947 after the establishment of Pakistan. In 2006, the first women fighter pilots batch joined the combat aerial mission command of PAF and women in Pakistan Army have been trained in combat missions, particularly in sniper, airborne and infantry warfare. Currently 12.8% of women are serving in the Australian Defense Force (with 15.1% in the Royal Australian Air Force, 14.6% in the Royal Australian Navy and 10.5% in the Australian Army) and 17.5% of the reserves. In 1998, Australia became the fourth nation in the world to allow women to serve on its submarines. In the report (Categories of Entry, 2011) it has been reported that Indian Armed Forces consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force. Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by three paramilitary organizations namely Assam Rifles, Indian Coast Guard and Special Frontier Force and various inter-service institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command. The strength of Indian Armed Forces is over 1.3 million active personnel. It is world's 3rd largest military force and has the world's largest volunteer army. Indian Army consists of 1,129,900 active personnel and 990960 as reserve. Indian Navy has a strength of 58,350 active and 55,000 as reserve personnel. Indian Air Force has a strength of 1,27,200 as active and 1,40,000 as reserve .In the article of (Deccan Herald, 22 Aug,2012) it has been reported that women officers in the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force constitute only 3.3, 3.9 and 10.4 percent of the officer cadre respectively and these figures were achieved within 20 years from when they were first recruited. The role of women in the armed forces for a long time, was limited to the medical profession i.e. doctors and nurses. In 1992, the doors were thrown open for women entry as regular officers in aviation, logistics, law, engineering and executive cadres. Thousands of spirited young women applied against advertisements and it was a turning point in the history of time. These women chose a new field where they had to painstakingly pave a path for the others to follow. Following are the branches where women are permitted to work in the Indian Armed Forces.

Though the scholars have discussed the role of women in the armed forces in the different parts of the world, the study on the role of women in the Indian armed forces as combat fighters is highly called for. The present study will evaluate the same topic.

? To evaluate the role of women in the Indian Armed Forces

? To find out the perception of the army officials about the role of women in combat

? To evaluate the physical and mental strength of women in a combat role

The study is primary in the nature. A sample size of 108 has been selected for the study. Systematic random sampling has used for the selection of the sample. For the analysis following tools have been used. Following tools are used for data analysis.

The mean is a particularly informative measure of the "central tendency" of the variable if it is reported along with its confidence intervals.

Usually we are interested in statistics (such as the mean) from our sample only to the extent to which they can infer information about the population. The confidence intervals for the mean give us a range of values around the mean where we expect the "true" (population) mean is located (with a given level of certainty). Skewness measures the deviation of the distribution from symmetry. If the skewness is clearly different from 0, then that distribution is asymmetrical, while normal distributions are perfectly symmetrical. 3 is the sample standard deviation raised to the third power n is the valid number of cases. Kurtosis measures the "peakedness" of a distribution. If the kurtosis is clearly different than 0, then the distribution is either flatter or more peaked than normal; the kurtosis of the normal distribution is 0. Kurtosis is computed as:

where:

( ) A line in a two-dimensional or two-variable space is defined by the equation Y=a+bX; in full text, the Y variable can be expressed in terms of a constant (a) and a slope (b) times the X variable. The constant is also referred to as the intercept, and the slope as the regression coefficient or B coefficient. Multiple regression procedures will estimate a linear equation of the form:

The regression line expresses the best prediction of the dependent variable (Y), given the independent variables (X). However, nature is rarely (if ever) perfectly predictable, and usually there is substantial variation of the observed points around the fitted regression line. The deviation of a particular point from Pearson's chi-square is used to assess two types of comparison: tests of goodness of fit and tests of independence. A test of goodness of fit establishes whether or not an observed frequency distribution differs from a theoretical distribution. A test of independence assesses whether paired observations on two variables, expressed in a contingency table, are independent of each other -for example, whether people from different regions differ in the frequency with which they report that they support a political candidate.

The t-test can be used to compare a sample mean to an accepted value (a population mean), or it can be used to compare the means of two sample sets.

where s is the standard deviation of the sample, not the population standard deviation.

V.

.

The current chapter will discuss the findings of the data analyzed with the help of statistical tools Table .1 shows that the mean value is lying between 1 and 3 ie strongly agree, agrees and neutral. It shows that most of the people agree with the study. All the people are in support that women can work in army in combat role and in PBOR's. The result of the standard deviation shows that there is very negligible deviation in the data which shows that the data is normal in the nature. The result of the skewness and the kurtosis also supports the same fact. After descriptive statistics correlation has been used to check the relationship among the variables. Next table will reveal the result of correlation. .000 On the basis of eigen value four factors have been made and the following variables come under the different factors.

F1 Includes the var no (1,2,3,5,6,22,23,24) F2 Includes the var no (4,7,14,15,17,18,20,21) F3 Includes the var no (8,9,13,16,18) F4 Includes the var no (15,25) Volume Table 9 shows the results of the T test. In all the cases the significance value vale is less than 0.05 which signifies that the findings of the study can be generalized in case of the universe of the study.

VII.

The present study revolves around the possibilities of combat role for the women in the Indian armed Forces.. The views of the people are overwhelming towards the combat role for the women in the Armed Forces. The responses of the people through questionnaire were hinting strongly to involve women in the armed forces. The statistical tools results are also indicating the provision of combat role for the women in the forces without any ambiguity. . India had also started inducting women in to armed forces since 1992 but only in the officer cadre and without the role of combat Operation. The changing environment, security perception and the capabilities of the women's made them eligible to work in the paramilitary forces in combat roles. The Indian Air Force has also made it public on its also 73rd Air forces day that women will fly the fighter aircraft from next year onward ITBP is also planning to induct women on the China border for the next year. This is the beginning of the combat operations role for women in the Indian Armed forces. The review paper is based on the feedback of 100 plus respondents. The respondents were chosen from three wings of the Armed forces of India ie Army, Air force & Navy. The respondents were chosen from serving & retired, officers & Men, Men and Women and of all available age groups. The above findings shows the possibility of deployment of women soldiers in combat role same as and Cook (2006) reveals in their study about the Russian army and other forces in the world. The results of the paper are inclining towards further increment of women in combat operation roles and their induction in the lower ranks of the forces.

The study also recommends that the further research required elaborating the possibility about the deployment of women soldiers in combat role. The further research may address the questions that on which battles and in which role the women may perform better as a combat warrior.