NEW DELHI: In what would rule out the induction of women soldiers for frontline combat duty in the near future, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has said that unless there is a change of mindset in society, both genders would not be able to work together in forward areas.General Rawat, who took over as the Army Chief on December 31, said that a call on the role of women in frontline combat can only be taken if they ‘share equal responsibility like their male counterparts’, questioning whether they would be comfortable ‘sleeping under a tank’ with their colleagues.“A tank has a crew of three people . What do they do when they roll out or are in combat, they just sleep under the tank. They cook and sleep under the tank, there is no toilet facility or separate accommodation.So, if it is one woman or two women and a male, if they are all willing to sleep under the tank and if the women folk are willing to accept it? (sic),” the Army Chief said.General Rawat said that it is a misnomer that there is no combat role for women, pointing out that officers have been inducted in arms like army air defence and the Corps of Signals. However, he gave several examples to make his point on the ‘difficulties’ on the frontier, asking if women are “willing to move out” in harsh environments.“In Arunachal , the longest patrol that goes to the border is a 35 day patrol. At night, when you halt, all that happens is a blue sheet is pulled out and everybody sleeps under it together, there is no toilet. If women are willing to move out in that environment , the women folk themselves need to take a call,” General Rawat said in response to queries at the annual Army Press Conference ahead of Army Day.The Army Chief is of the view that women have to take a call on whether they can serve on the frontline. “We have to look at our society and see, once the women are willing to take this kind of call, we will address this issue,” he said.The Army Chiefs comments come after a major shift by the air force in 2015 on the role of women on combat duty. The Air force allowed woman pilots to fly fighter jets after government permissions starting 2015, with the first set of pilots likely to take to jets by the mid of this year.The Navy too has initiated discussions on opening up more roles for women officers.NEW DELHI: The Army is setting up a new grievance redressal system that will enable anyone to directly write to the Chief of Army Staff as a counter to recent incidents in which soldiers have used the social media to talk about the problems they face.“The orders for setting up the Chief of Army Staff suggestions cum grievances box was issued today by the army headquarters. We will follow suite with such boxes at the command headquarters and lower levels,” Army Chief Gen Rawat said.