With the inauguration of the first Women’s Science Congress (WSC) running an-hour-and-a-half behind schedule, a group of leading women scientists angrily informed Dr S. Ayyappan, director-general of Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) that they were totally opposed to the idea of the holding of a separate WSC.
Led by Dr Vijaylakshmi Ravindranath, chairperson, Centre for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, the women scientists stressed that such a lackadaisical start for the session did not bode well for women in science.
The key session, grandiosely titled “Women in Science and Science for Women,” the brainchild of Prof. Geetha Bali, general president of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) was to be inaugurated by India’s ambassador to Washington Nirupama Rao with the key note address being given by Dr D. Purandeswari, minister of state for education in the human resource development ministry. But Dr Ravindranath, who arrived at 9 am sharp only to leave the venue to return an hour later and find that none of the dignitaries had arrived, told the director-general of Indian Council archly that “We have become the laughing stock of the public with none of the key invitees present on the dais.”