Health and Hierachy among Spouses of Deployed Army Personnel

One of the very less talked about and less explored section of women in India are the spouses of Armed force Personnel whose overall well-being is majorly influenced by her husband's (military personnel) job due to situations like deployments, relocations, separations, dangerous operations, frequent postings etc. that induce stress, anxiety, low marital satifaction and among the wives of the military personnel and this may even leads to physical symptoms of decreased mental health. Spouses of military personnel are the “Silent Ranks” that stand behind and nurture the soldiers of our country and therefore regarded as an unseen gateway to protect the nation's security and its pride. Therefore it is very necessary on the part of the spouses to be psychologically sound and physically healthy in order to support the soldier, mentally, emotionally and physically and to feel proud to be the part of the Military life. Therefore the present paper elicits the psychological well-being and physical well-being of the spouses of Indian military personnel and gives a comparative analysis between the spouses of different ranks as rank decides the perks and privileges which could directly and indirectly influence the psychological well-being of army wives. The present study was carried out on 150 respondents (50 officers' spouses, 50 JCOs' spouses & 50 ORs' spouses) in Suratgrah military station Rajasthan. Psychological well-being scale developed by Sisodia and Chaudhary was used to assess psychological wellbeing of the respondents and physical well-being scale (self developed with the help of health record cards issued by army) was used to assess physical health. Percentages and F test was used to used to analyze the data and it was found that there were statistically non- significant differences in the psychological well-being however significant differences in physical well-being across different ranks were reported among spouses of Indian armed force personnel.