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Mona Singh has a B Tech in Electronics and Communications from GIMET, Amritsar. Bhavana Kanth has a BE in Medical Electronics from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore. Avani Chaturvedi has a B Tech in Computer Science from Banasthali University, Jaipur.

Even a few years ago, the one career that none of them would be thinking of was flying fighter planes in the Indian Air Force. The Indian armed forces were still unwilling to put women in combat roles. It was only earlier in 2016 that President Pranab Mukherjee announced that all such roles would be open to women in the future.

Saturday is the day that Singh, Kanth and Chaturvedi created history, breaking through the glass ceiling to be formally commissioned as fighter pilots in the fighter stream of flying branch of the Indian Air Force at Dundigal, Hyderabad.

“This is a golden day. This should be opening for more women for joining combat forces,’’ Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said.

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha told ANI News that after being commissioned, the women would take advanced jet training and later proceed to regular squads. Stage-III training will be held in Bidar, Karnataka for a year. It will take place on Hawk advanced jet trainers, before they fly supersonic warplanes.

This induction continues to be on an “experimental basis” and will continue to be observed for the next five years.

"Feel confident, good, definitely. All our instructors were very supportive," Avani Chaturvedi said.

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