An idea born out of a luncheon meeting of 15 senior women professionals associated with various verticals of the aviation industry in 2015, Women in Aviation India (WAI) has been steadfastly working for creating awareness and spreading knowledge about vast opportunities that exist for women in the aviation industry for the last 9 years.
The WAI society and its members reach out to school and college students in the country through initiatives like Girls in Aviation Day (GIAD), distribute job kits, special bands, T-shirts, conduct competitions, etc. to spread awareness about career opportunities in aviation for girls.
“In 2024, we have reached out to 15 centres in the country as part of the GIAD campaign with our partners,” said Radha Bhatia, president of WAI. “I stood up in the man’s world five decades ago. I felt it was time to pay back. Although we worship 8 Durgas twice a year, women are still kept at the back in many areas. We want to change that,” said Bhatia, who is also the chairperson of Bird Group, a major stakeholder of the aviation and hospitality sector.
From this year, WAI has started organising essay competitions in schools and colleges and best entries will be selected and acknowledged at the annual ‘Giving Wings to Dreams Awards 2024, which is scheduled in Delhi on November 21. Winners will also be given scholarships, she said.
“We have added many new categories this year. We have opened a new website for nominations,” Bhatia said. The jury for awards comprises RN Choubey, former aviation secretary; Kapil Kaul of CAPA; Amitabh Khosla from IATA; Rathi Vinay Jha, former tourism secretary, among others.
She said that the mission is to create more opportunities for women in the aviation industry and they get the right priority in jobs, and feel safe and secure to work in the industry with dignity and respect. WAI has charted out 56 different job roles for women in the aviation industry which starts from a commercial pilot to aircraft maintenance engineers to flight attendants to station agents, meet and greet services, air traffic controllers, reservation executives, immigration services, aerobridge operator, etc.
Bhatia also advocates a special women police force for airports and more women in immigration desks of airports. “We hardly see women immigration officers in our airports. Women officers can present a better image of the country to the visitors and tourists,” she said.
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“Our endeavour and mission is to create an army of professional women at all levels of the aviation industry,” she said. WAI has tied up with National Skill Training Institute (NSTI) to start skill training in aviation skills. “They never had aviation related courses earlier,” she said, talking about new initiatives by the society.
India has one of the highest numbers of commercial pilots in the world. Women comprise 15 percent of the commercial pilots. However, this doesn’t satisfy Bhatia. “We want it to be 30 percent by 2030,” she said, citing the huge orders for aircrafts placed by leading airline companies like Air India and IndiGo which are expected to join their fleet over the coming years.
Although Bhatia is happy the way WAI has been able to nudge the industry for a change in its outlook, she feels that there is a long way to go before the industry assimilates the charters of WAI fully.
While the senior management in the industry fully understands the need to have more women in their rank and file, the middle management is yet to accept and change their approach fully. That calls for constant nudging and pushing, she says.
Talking about the training and skilling infrastructure, Bhatia said that while there has been proliferation of skilling infrastructure across the country, she felt that the quality of training being imparted is a big worry and required to be improved to match with the global standards.
