Indigenus

There are murmurs in Vigyan Bhavan about a proposal to set up the country's first all-women engineering and technology institute in President Pratibha Patil's hometown in Maharashtra. The HRD ministry is mulling over the proposal for this exclusive women's technology school in Amravati near Nagpur on Patil's recommendation. The country's first woman president was apparently worried about the small number of girl students getting into the IITs.

The proposal has met criticism on these accounts: 1) Will there be enough women qualifying to fill up one IIT-type school if there aren't enough in the existing ones? 2) WIll the standard of students not suffer if the target is to fill the school up somehow? 3) Is it prudent to make technical education gender-specific?

What are your views?

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on June 26, 2008
Categories: Education, Gender, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Good news for all you women scientists in India. Here's a gender sop that's sure to get more women back into labs -- flexible work hours, work-from-home options, more awards, campus housing and creche for kids. The recommendations of a government task force on women scientists set up two years ago are finally being implemented. We had some very good insights from scientists -- both men and women -- on the gender divide in science on the Nature India forum. Let's wait and watch how much action follows these pathbreaking announcements.

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on March 14, 2008
Categories: Gender | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)