Are Women Held to Equal Standards in India's Armed Forces? MARCOS Commando Weighs In

MARCOS commando Praveen Teotia doesn't dispute that women should serve in India's armed forces and police.

What he disputes is whether the current system genuinely holds them to the same standard as men — despite offering equal pay, rank, and facilities.

Teotia's argument starts with manpower. Countries like the United States and Norway expanded combat roles to women partly out of necessity, facing limited male recruitment pools.

 India, with one of the largest working-age male populations globally,

doesn't face that same pressure — which raises his central question: if not manpower, what is driving India's approach to female induction into combat-adjacent roles?

His sharper point is about physical standards. Across Indian police and defence recruitment, fitness benchmarks — run times, pull-up counts, endurance tests — are typically set differently for men and women applying to the same rank.

 A male recruit might need to complete 1600 metres in five and a half minutes; the female standard often allows significantly more time. Yet pay, MSP, and rank structure remain identical.

For elite units like MARCOS, where only 15 to 20 candidates out of roughly 150 make it through selection, Teotia argues the tasks involved — carrying a full-grown teammate, extreme sleep deprivation, sustained physical and psychological stress — don't change based on who is attempting them. His position:

if standards are lowered to fill quotas, it undermines both the men who cleared a tougher bar and the women expected to perform a role they weren't tested against on equal terms.

This isn't a uniquely Indian debate. Some militaries, including Israel and Norway, have moved toward gender-neutral, task-based fitness standards — a single bar tied to job requirements rather than sex-based scoring. Pass rates for women under this model are typically lower, but the standard itself doesn't change.

India hasn't adopted this approach broadly, which is precisely what Teotia is pushing back on.

Watch the full conversation-