‘Our Mission Was To Build The Bridge’: Army Officer On Wayanad Landslides At She Shakti 2024

The three officers of the Armed Forces, which continue to be a male-dominated profession, stress why the military does not see the gender, and share their life missions at CNN-News18’s She Shakti 2024 in New Delhi on Monday.

Major Seeta Ashok Shelke, the only woman officer in the Indian Army unit responsible for constructing the 120-foot-long Bailey Bridge to connect the worst-affected areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Kerala’s Wayanad district, said it took her team nearly 34 hours to do that. “Our mission was to construct the bridge. Our soldiers were not worried about their clothes drenched in sludge,” she said. The Indian Army’s mission is not to just defend the borders, but also the soul of the country, she added.

Wayanad witnessed the worst-ever landslides on July 30, 2024 devastating the villages of Punchirimattam, Chooralmala and Mundakkai. More than 231 people died, while body parts of 218 others were recovered.

On the role of women in the Armed Forces, Squadron Leader Shivangi Singh, the first woman fighter pilot to fly the Rafale, said, “We operate machines. They don’t know the gender. Women have proven their might in all fields. We are making a gender-neutral environment (in Armed Forces).

Expanding on how much harder it is for women officers in the Air Force, Singh said whenever she had self-doubts, there were people around to support her. “If we keep doing what we are doing, we will get better”. “Whenever I fly, I always remember the mission. We have been told if you take-off, you have to land”, Singh said when asked about her life’s motto.

Another officer, Captain Shilpi Singh of the Indian Navy, who was present at the event, mentioned that the only connection she had with the Armed Forces is that her father is a paratrooper. Sharing the insights on INS Deepak, a class of fleet replenishment tankers of the Indian Navy built in Italy, Singh said she “had butterflies” when she saw it for the first time. “I was on INS Deepak for 13 months. It tested me as a person. It felt like a dream come true”.