The department of science and technology (DST) has launched a major initiative to provide opportunities to women scientists and technologists, especially those who have been forced to take breaks in their careers.
Dr T. Ramaswami, heading DST, pointed out that DST had created 1,000 contractual positions for working women scientists who wanted to relocate with many of these posts being created in public sector institutions.
This scheme, titled DISHA, would offer five-year scholarships to women up to the age of 55 in the physical sciences, earth sciences, atmospheric sciences, mathematical and life sciences.
This should help tackle plug the overall shortage of women scientists. The percentage of women at the top ranges from between 10-14 per cent of the strength of an institution. In fact, women scientists constitute less than 15 per cent of the scientific pool in the country — the Indian Academy of Sciences has 57 women and 928 male fellows, and the ratio is no better in the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Vijaylakshmi Ravindranath, chairperson of the Centre for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, feels it is imperative to make science more gender-sensitive and create support structures for women to continue their career.
Astrophysicist Anna-purni Subramanian of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics pointed out that in her own department, women students often dropped out because they had to take part in frequent field trips to observatories which involved spending the night there. “Women’s participation has been described as a leaky pipeline after graduation and also after marriage. We need to adopt a more flexible approach. If students are not able to finish their Ph.Ds, they should be allowed to reduce the number of courses in a semester and carry forward their work to another semester. They must also be allowed to adopt flexible timings,” said Dr Subramanian.
Science works by isolating variables, but scientific enterprise cannot be productive if women are isolated within it.
The two key problems of women scientists — relocation after marriage and finding new mentors under which to conduct their research — will help plug dropout rates in a major way, Dr Subramanian added.
She herself lost four years after the birth of her son. When she rejoined work, she found herself four years behind her colleagues.
“The introduction of contractual work will ensure a seamless transition and also no loss of pay for women scientists,” said a woman scientist from the DST.