A mentorship programme for encouraging women to explore broader opportunities in STEM careers by equipping girls with tools was inaugurated by Secretary Department of Science and Technology (DST) Professor Ashutosh Sharma along with an online discussion on Indian Women in STEM-challenges and Opportunities; Scientific Social Responsibility.
The mentorship programme titled ‘Kalpana’ was launched by the Non-Governmental Organisation Vigyan Shaala International, a not for profit organization working to close the access and attainability gap in STEM fields through guided mentoring of the youth.
“This is indeed a great mentorship program which is to give wings to your imagination and through these wings help you reach wherever the imagination takes you. The whole point is to create opportunities for those wings to land you at your destination,” said Prof. Sharma while inaugurating the programme.
“Career is not a single cross-section. It is a whole pipeline or chain of various links which begins as early as in high school. Going forward, we need to focus on where the weaknesses are and address them without losing sight of the entire chain. Considering the fact that women leadership and role models are very limited in many areas of science & technology, we need to start with the inputs to the pipeline -- ambitious quality inputs that are definitely going to succeed and therefore provide the next-gen leadership and role models without worrying too much about the glass ceiling,” he added.
Professor Sharma also spoke about the Vigyan Jyoti program launched by DST to build confidence among young girl students. “After High school, a lot of girls have no clear idea of what they are going to do or what their ambitions are. A lot of mentorship and counselling is required for all of this. Moreover, there could be financial constraints to address all of these issues in a holistic way. This, the pilot programme of Vigyan Jyoti, is taking place in 50 districts all over India. The target is to enroll about 50,000 High School girls in these Vigyan Jyoti camps, a physically and psychologically secured space that provides a level playing field to the girl students,” he pointed out.
“Not just in India but world over the social and cultural attitudes often result in women being discriminated against, either subtly or explicitly and discouraged from doing science,” Professor, Theoretical Physics Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) said at the launch of the programme. She mentioned that about 44.2% of the science PhDs in India go to women, but the women's participation in scientific workforce is merely 13.9%.
“Yet there have been some remarkable and successful women scientists, and often they had to overcome major difficulties and discrimination in order to succeed,” she added, introducing the audience of young undergraduate girl students with inspiring stories of 3 historical women scientists, namely Cleopatra, a chemist from Alexandria, Kamala Sohonie, an Indian biochemist and also the first woman to get Ph.D. in any branch of science and Anna Mani an Indian meteorologist and physicist who was also a student of Sir C.V. Raman.
“Girl students in India also have lower self-confidence for pursuing math or science compared to boys, and this is something that Kalpana will address,” she pointed out.
Dr. Bharti Singhal from Vigyanshaala International, who is leading the program Kalpana, said, “VigyanShaala’s Kalpana aims to reimagine STEM fields and create a self-sustaining and an uplifting community of women in STEM who can support each other through a seven-week mentoring program that has been designed by STEM professionals coming from all the leading global Universities.”
The program Kalpana by VigyanShaala International is an online program to kindle the spirit of innovation and scientific temperament, inspire them by engaging with STEM leaders, provide professional development tools, build a Kalpana network, or a community of women from diverse background, and widen opportunities in STEM fields for women.
