New Delhi: Abhilasha Sinha, a 2012 batch IIT Delhi graduate, recalled the thin presence of women on campus about a decade ago. Since then, a scheme launched in 2018 has helped boost the gender ratio across IIT campuses. However, retention of women in STEM courses remains a challenge.
The editors of Lab Hopping—a science media platform—and researchers at STEMtheGap connected via a video conference recently to make sense of the disappearance of women in science from India’s premier institutions.
Looking back at the legacy of the premier institution, Ravinder Kaur, a sociology professor at IIT Delhi, said that “there were only founding fathers, no mothers were included. I wish there had been.”
In 2018, a committee constituted by the Joint Admission Board introduced supernumerary seats for women at IITs to boost the gender ratio.
But still, STEM campuses remain isolating for women. The isolation and marginalisation are architecturally and behaviourally built in, according to a study by Raunaq Saraswat titled Two Campuses Within One.
The video conference, titles HumanIITies, was led by a panel, which included Abhilasha Sinha and Raunaq Saraswat of STEM The Gap, Ravinder Kaur, Swati Sharma, Principal Project Scientist at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the IIT Delhi and Ashima Dogra, co-founder of feminist science media project TheLifeofScience.com and co-author of Lab Hopping: A Journey to Find India’s Women in Science.
The panel reflected on Saraswat’s work, which reveals the gendered experience of an IIT campus. The layout of IIT Delhi’s campus centres women’s life around their hostel and academic block. Recreational facilities are more than a kilometre away, closer to the men’s hostels.
“The male gaze follows women everywhere on the campus. It’s the eyes, not the crowd,” said a student, quoted in Saraswat’s article.
The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Delhi has been trying to bridge the interdisciplinary gap between sciences and arts. Their research aims to debunk the myth of bias, to formulate policies based on a true understanding of the issue.
“Science and technology are embedded in society. A deep understanding of our social reality is crucial for technology to be socially inclusive,” said Dogra.
Also read: More Indian women in STEM but few are becoming leaders. Hard to retain them in workforce
Supernumeraries or seat stealers?
Swati Sharma, Principal Project Scientist at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the IIT Delhi, published a compelling paper on the performance of the female students. Her research, backed up with statistical evidence, shows that after the introduction of the Supernumerary Seats Scheme, entrants not only caught up but also performed better than their male counterparts.
Sharma’s research follows a life cycle approach, looking at the barriers that exist at each entry point, and the factors that make women drop out.
She aims to find out the enablers that will help women go forward.
Her research also looks at the perception of affirmative action on the IIT Delhi campus. What do men feel about the women coming in through the supernumerary scheme? They call it the girls’ quota, the unfair quota, seat stealers. Women, meanwhile, struggle with impostor syndrome.
But according to the statistical analysis by Sharma’s team, by the time women graduate, they have better ranks than when they first entered the institution. Quantitatively, the supernumerary scheme has worked at breaking the entry barrier to IITs.
“What more can be done so that women can not only survive but thrive in these spaces?” Gauri Patti, an aspiring physicist, asked the panel.
“Right now, we are looking at what is the right mix of going deep on certain themes versus trying to do many different things,” said Dogra. The panellists agreed that the primary question now was how to balance between quick wins versus long-term changes
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
You could write all this about IIT Delhi, do visit IIT Kharagpur once and then compare your gender ratio, recreational area, eyes looking on and stuff.
A different perspective:
Out of (approx) 10,000 seats students from Urban metropolis (New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Chennai) are a lot less than those from Rural regions.
Best regards,
Studied from IIT &
LOR from IIT-DELHI
“sociology professor”
That should tell you everything you need to know about the worth and value of their opinion.
Left liberal intellectual parasites are reviled and censored in even actual Marxist Leninist countries, Social Science in those countries is the exclusive preview of the state as it should be.
And here in the supreme left liberal lala land of India these leeches are given prominent positions that too in prestigious technical institutes.
Vishwagandu indeed.
One wonders what makes The Print publish such idiotic articles.
Is there no editorial filter at The Print? Who takes the final call on publishing articles on this platform?
“Disappearence of women in science” – care to explain what is meant by this? Is it the case that prior to the establishment of the IITs, men and women had a more or less equal ratio on technical college campuses? And ever since the IITs have been established, women have “disappeared” from campuses?
Are we trying to put the blame on the IITs for “disappearence of women” in campuses?
Also, what is exactly meant by “limiting girls to their hostels and academic blocks”? Just because the boys hostels are closer to the recreational facilities, can we come to that conclusion?
In that case, at IIT Roorkee, the recreational facilities are much closer to the girl’s hostels. In fact, they are right next to the girl’s hostels. And quite far away from boy’s hostels. So are we to assume that IIT Roorkee discriminates against boys?
The main issue at the IITs is the establishment of the Humanities and Social Science departments by the UPA government. This has enabled a bunch of feminists owing allegiance to the Left-liberal cabal to enter these hallowed institutions. As is their wont, they have right away started indoctrinating the impressionable young minds on campus. This has resulted in the feeling of victimhood being embedded in the minds of female students at IITs.
A sincere request to the Union government – please close down the Humanities and Social Sciences departments at IITs. Else, over a period of time, even the IITs will turn into JNUs and Jamias. One JNU/Jamia is enough for the nation. We don’t need any more of this lunacy.