19/08/2019 - Social Justice | Mainstorming

IAS Parliament 5 years

KEY POINTS

· According to a UNESCO report, as of 2015, only 28.8% of STEM researchers globally, and 13.9% in India were women.

· Cultural stereotypes pose severe barriers for women's entry into the sciences—for instance, only 29% of female students in India are enrolled in a BTech course, as per the All India Higher Education Survey (AISHE) 2017-18.

· Patriarchal nature of the Indian society prevents women entering into the Research and development.

· Managing the family responsibility and work culture becomes challenging for women.

· Possibly be on account of rigorous academic and research in the crucial stage of life, familial issues like marriage, family responsibility, relocation due to transferable job of spouse etc.

· These sometimes leads to dropout from higher studies, career break, overage for scientific jobs and prolonged absence from place of work or even resignation from the job.

Government’s schemes

· Knowledge Involvement Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN) Programme is being implemented by the Department of Science & Technology to provide various career opportunities to women scientists.

· It is primarily aimed at gender parity in Science & Technology sector by inducting more women talent in the research & development domain through various programmes.

· Consolidation of University Research for Innovation and Excellence in women universities (CURIE) is another component of KIRAN that has a focus to develop state-of-the-art infrastructure to help large number of women to enhance their S&T skills and knowledge in order to make a fulfilling career in this domain besides promoting research culture in such institutions.

· DISHA Programme for Women in Science to address these issues and made focused efforts to not only facilitate the re-entry of such women to mainstream science by offering them opportunities to pursue R&D, take up projects having distinct societal impact and explore a career in Intellectual Property domain.