Mohana, Bhawana & Avani: Meet IAF's first women trainee fighter pilots

Indian Air Force (IAF) will soon get its first women fighter pilot. IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha announced that the force's fighter stream will no longer be a male domain from June 18, 2016 when the first batch of women fighter pilot trainees is commissioned into the force.

IAF fighter trainees Mohana Singh, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvedi are the three officers who will create history when they become the first Indian women fighter pilots. All the three are presently undergoing rigorous training at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal near Hyderabad.

With the IAF Chief making the announcement on the occasion of International Women's Day, one more gender barrier has been broken down. Fighter trainees Mohana Singh, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvedi will be commissioned as IAF officers into the fighter stream in June 2016.

"When we joined the Air Force this opportunity was not there and once the gates were opened, I was motivated and grabbed the opportunity," said the fighter trainee Mohana Singh.

Her fellow trainee Avani Chaturvedi said that once the opportunity was given, the instructors motivated them. For the third trainee Bhawana Kanth it was a childhood dream come true. "It was not there earlier but once we got the opportunity, I grabbed it."

The trio added that training had become tougher but they were ready for every challenge. "It has become more focussed now. Earlier we had ground and flying training together," said Mohana Singh.

Avani Chaturvedi is ready to face all the challenges. "Nothing is difficult, it demands hard work and focus."

Bhawana Kanth pointed out that they were undergoing the same training as their male counterparts. It is exactly the same standard, hard work. It is not about gender, it is about the individual," said the confident Kanth.

Being trained as a fighter pilots has made them ready to take up all the tasks that would be allotted to them.

Their message to other women is to "dream big and think out of the box, set a goal and have the will power to achieve it. "Be driven for dream and work hard," they added.