The first
Indian woman officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Wing Commander
Vijayalakshmi Ramanan, born on February, 1924.
Vijayalakshmi
came from a family with military connections. Her father, a prominent public
health official in Chennai (now Madras) had served during World War I.
A trained
Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, had joined the Indian Army in 1955 on what only
meant to be a short-service commission.
She was
seconded to the Indian Air Force (IAF) to become its first woman commissioned
officer and ended up staying in the service for 24 years. She was officially
known as officer 4971, said that she joined the armed forces, after her
husband, also an officer in Indian Air Force named K V Ramanan asked her
to apply. She recalled later, “All together there were may be only a dozen of
us in the military. There are no uniforms for women in the military.
Vijayalakshmi decided to have a custom-made saree tailored in Air force blues
and would later adopt this as standard issues.
Besides
being a Gynaecologist & delivering babies, she also had administrative
duties of the Medical Board, family planning. She also took classes for Nursing
Officers in Obstetrics & Gynaecology.
When the
war broke out in 1962, 1966 and 1971, she also helped treat wounded troops and
airman. Finally, in 1971, her short-service commission was supplanted by a
permanent commission in 1971.
By 1979,
the year of her retirement, she held of Wing Commander.
In the
year 1977, she had been awarded the Vishist Seva medal by President Neelam
Sanjiva Reddy for meritorious service.
In the
year before joining the Air force, she was an AIR artiste from the age of 15.
While
studying medicine at Madras College in the 1940s, she represented her college
at music competitions. For All India Radio (AIR), she broadcast regularly from
Delhi, Lucknow, Secunderbad and Bengaluru.
She, historical gem of our country left us on 18th October, 2020.
Thank you.
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