On the specific subject of girls and their presence (or lack of it) in the Sciences, I am compelled to believe that we must look at it from the macro, societal, economic and individual perspectives.
At Independence, the literacy rate in India was just 13%. While we have travelled a long way from there, we still have some way to go as far as education for girls is concerned. Over the first 50 years, India grappled with access to education by setting up schools. Today we have over 1.5 million schools of which 75% are government-run and 40,000 colleges and universities. The gross enrolment ratio now is around 26% and India is striving to get to 50% in this decade.
The completion of girls’ schooling (till classes 8, 10, or 12) in post-independent India has been a big enabler in accelerated girls’ education through the 1980s and 1990s. Social awareness and availability of government schools played a great role in this transformation.
Women in STEM
This year, as per official figures, more girls were born in India. The quota for girls has made it easier. Also Science streams are expanding dramatically. New domains such as Data Sciences, Analytics, Biotechnology, Forensics, Software, Actuaries, Nutrition, Healthcare have come up. If we look at girls in STEM, India has 43% followed by RSA (43%), Italy (39%)and Greater Britain (38%) while the U.S.(34%) stars as #9 in that list. One in three research papers in India are published by women researchers though India ranks 19th when it comes to composition of women at a work place.
Driven by a new initiative by Ministry of Science and Technology, as well as Ministry of HRD in 2020, all top educational institutions have begun to get ranked basis gender percentage of students and faculty. IITs, IIMs NLUs, and medical colleges have easier access, lower percentile scores, and reserve seats to improve the gender composition further. The improving socio-economic indicators and woman success stories will accelerate this further.
The write is President and Chief Business Officer, Career Launcher
