Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin assumed the role of Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), becoming the first woman doctor to ever hold this prestigious position.
“She has been a strong advocate for encouraging young women to join the armed forces and stands as a prominent icon of the government’s Nari Shakti initiative,” said the Ministry of Defence.
At 60, Vice Admiral Sarin will serve a two-year term as the head of the AFMS, an organisation directly under the Defence Ministry responsible for the medical policies across the military.
Prior to this role, she led the Navy’s Medical Services Directorate, and she has also served as the Director General of Medical Services (Air) and Commandant of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune.
This appointment follows the recent promotion of Lieutenant General Sadhna Saxena Nair, who became the first woman to hold the position of Director General Medical Services (Army) just two months earlier.
Vice Admiral Sarin, commissioned in December 1985 after graduating from AFMC, holds an MD in Radiodiagnosis from AFMC and a Diplomate of the National Board in Radiation Oncology from Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. She has also trained in Gamma Knife surgery at the University of Pittsburgh in the US.
Throughout her 38-year career, Vice Admiral Sarin has held numerous distinguished academic and administrative posts, including Professor and Head of Radiation Oncology at the Army Hospital (Research & Referral) and Command Hospital (Southern Command) in Pune, Commanding Officer of INHS Asvini, and Command Medical Officer in the Indian Navy’s Southern and Western Naval Commands.
Vice Admiral Sarin has the rare honour of serving in all three branches of the Armed Forces – starting as a Lieutenant in the Army, progressing to a Surgeon Vice Admiral in the Navy, and reaching the rank of Air Marshal in the Air Force, a unique career path enabled by the military’s cross-service posting system.
Vice Admiral Sarin was recently appointed to a national task force formed by the Supreme Court to establish safe working conditions for medical professionals, following the alleged rape and murder of a female resident doctor at the RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, an incident that led to widespread protests by doctors. The task force, constituted in August, is responsible for preparing a strategy to prevent violence against medical personnel and creating a national protocol for dignified and secure working environments for all healthcare staff.
In July 2024, Vice Admiral Sarin was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) by President Droupadi Murmu for her outstanding service. Her promotion to DGAFMS is a landmark moment for women in the Indian Armed Forces, as she now holds the highest rank ever attained by a female officer in the military.
As DGAFMS, she will oversee medical policies for the Armed Forces and represent the military’s medical concerns to Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
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