Women Scientists in India

In News

• Recently, Dr N Kalaiselvi was appointed as the first woman director general of India’s largest research and development organisation Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). 

Data on Women in R&D 

• Increasing Trend
  • The participation of women in science research has been generally increasing over the past two decades in the country.
  • 28% of participants in extramural R&D projects in 2018-19 were women, up from 13% in 2000-01 due to various initiatives taken by successive governments.
• Four fold growth
  • The number of women principal investigators in R&D had risen more than four times from 232 in 2000-01 to 941 in 2016-17.
  • The percentage of women among researchers went from 13.9% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2018.
• Sector wise assessment
  • There were fewer women researchers in engineering and technology (14.5%) compared with the natural sciences and agriculture (22.5% each), and health sciences (24.5%).
  • The percentage of women researchers in the social sciences and humanities is, however, much higher at 36.4%.
  • Women’s participation is the highest in biotechnology (40%) and medicine (35%). 
• Participation in Bachelor’s and Master’s levels 
  • Results of the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2019 showed a 53% and 55% participation of women in science education at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels respectively, numbers that are comparable with many developed countries. 
  • But at doctoral level, women graduates (44%) lagged behind men (56%).

Challenges

• Familial issues
  • 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. 
• 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%.

Initiatives taken by the Government and Other organisations

• Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI) project
  • It is based on the UK’s Athena Swan Charter.
  • 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 numbers of women students and researchers. 
• 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.
• Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN)” Scheme of DST
  • It had been instituted to encourage women scientists through various programmes in the field of Science and Technology (S&T).
• Consolidation of University Research through Innovation and Excellence in Women Universities (CURIE) Programme
  • Only women Universities are being supported for development of research infrastructure and creation of state-of-the-art research laboratories to enhance women’s participation in the S & T domain.
• Indo-US Fellowship for Women in STEMM (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.
• Women Excellence Award
  • It recognizes women Academy Awardees to expand their research horizon to higher levels.
• Biotechnology Career Advancement and Re-orientation Programme (BioCARe)
  • To encourage women scientists in Biotechnology research.
• 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” and is being conferred to one-woman scientist each year on the Foundation day.
• Women Entrepreneur’s Quest (WEQ) Programme
  • It was initiated by DST in partnership with Anita Borg Institute, USA for scouting and supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Technology.
• Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Foundation (WEE)
  • It is India’s first of its kind initiative by IIT Delhi supported and sponsored by DST to strengthen women eco – system.
• Women Start-up Program (WSP) of DST
  • In partnership with Goldman Sachs aims to support ambitious and innovative women entrepreneurs by enabling them to transform their idea into a business venture.

Way forward

• Government programmes and natural progression 
  • The increase in women’s participation, especially in research, is due to a combination of government programmes and natural progression.
  • It aims to raise women’s participation in S&T to 30% by 2030.
• Creche facilities 
  • In numerous CSIR labs, women’s participation has increased because there are creche facilities now in the residential colonies where the women scientists live. 
• Attitudes towards girls 
  • Parental attitudes towards girls pursuing science has also seen a shift, and girls are now encouraged more.
• Increasing use of AI in the sciences
  • We anticipate that in the next 5-6 years, there will be an exponential growth in women’s participation in S&T with women using more sophisticated tools that allow remote working, such as something simple like access to online libraries.
• Age relaxation
  • Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) provides an upper age relaxation of five years to women researchers to pursue doctoral and postdoctoral research for award of Fellowships. 

Source: IE