India’s women in science

General Studies Paper 3

Context: Recent data from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) showed women made up 28% of participants in 2018-19 in extramural Research and Development (R&D) projects, up from 13% in 2000-01.

About

• The proportion of women primary investigators in R&D increased more than four times — from 232 in 2000-01 to 941 in 2016-17. The proportion of women researchers rose from 13.9% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2018.
• In 2008, the Indian Academy of Sciences published Lilavati’s Daughters: The Women Scientists of India, a volume capturing the journeys of nearly 100 Indian women in science.
• In 2016, Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj launched the website com that would profile the stories of women and non-binary people in science in India. It would serve the dual purpose of throwing up role models for a younger generation and shedding light on the constraints that discourage diversity at India’s premier institutes and labs.

Women scientists of India

• Anandibai Joshi (India’s first woman physician), Janaki Ammal (first Indian scientist to have received the Padma Shri Award in 1977), Iravati Karve (India’s first woman anthropologist), Kamala Sohonie (first Indian woman to have bagged a PhD degree in the scientific discipline), Rajeshwari Chatterjee (First woman engineer from the state of Karnataka), Kalpana Chawla (first astronaut of Indian origin to have forayed into the space), and V R Lalithambika (leading the Gaganyaan mission).

What are the obstacles that hold women back?

• Familial issues:
  • Lack of representation, deeply entrenched patriarchy.
  • Women tend to drop out when they get married or have children.
  • These reasons are attributed to dropout from higher studies, career break, overage for scientific jobs and prolonged absence from place of work or even resignation from the job.
• Institutional Issues: 
  • Poor working conditions and sexual harassment at workplaces.
• Drop at the post-doctoral level: 
  • We have observed that participation (of women) is healthy till the postgraduate level. But there is a drop at the post-doctoral level, where most of the research takes place.
• Participation in IIT’s:
  • The rate of women’s participation is particularly low across the five IITs in Delhi, Mumbai, Kanpur, Chennai, and Roorkee ranging from 9% to 14%.

Measures Taken by the Government

• Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI):
  • It is a pilot project under the Department of Science and Technology to promote gender equity in science and technology.
  • In the first phase of GATI, 30 educational and research institutes have been selected by DST, with a focus on women’s participation in leadership roles, faculty, and the number of women students and researchers.
• Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN): 
  • It is a plan under the Department of Science and Technology to encourage women scientists and also prevent women scientists from giving up research due to family reasons.
• SERB-POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women in Exploratory Research):
  • SERB – POWER provides structured support in research to ensure equal access and weighted opportunities for Indian women scientists engaged in R&D activities.
  • The R&D support to women scientists is provided through two components, namely: SERB POWER Fellowships & SERB POWER Research Grants.
• Consolidation of University Research through Innovation and Excellence in Women Universities (CURIE) Programme:
  • Only women Universities are being supported for the development of research infrastructure and the creation of state-of-the-art research laboratories to enhance women’s participation in the S & T domain.
• Indo-US Fellowship for Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Medicine):
  • It encourages Indian women scientists and technologists to undertake international collaborative research in premier institutions in the USA for a duration of 3-6 months.
• Vigyan Jyoti Scheme:
  • It encourages girl students of Class 9 to 12 to pursue education and career in S&T, particularly in the areas where women are underrepresented.
• National Award for woman scientist:
  • To recognize the contribution of women scientists in the field of Earth System Sciences, Ministry of Earth Sciences has initiated a special award called “National Award for woman scientist” which is conferred to one-woman scientist each year on the Foundation Day.
• Setting up of creches:
  • Some institutions are setting up creches so that the scientist mothers can carry on with their research work uninterrupted.

Conclusion

For a better tomorrow, we need to empower women in STEM, as it helps women pursue their dreams, and science, businesses, society and therefore, nations would gain immensely from their equal representation.