KIRAN: Ray of Hope for Indian Women Scientists

KIRAN: Ray of Hope for Indian Women Scientists

Indian's Union Ministry of Science and Technology has just announced a very important scheme for helping lady scientists to have a brighter future in the field. The scheme is entitled KIRAN or Knowledge, Involvement, Research, Advancement through Nurturing) for women scientists in India. This scheme aims at bring gender equality to the field of science and technology.

The objectives of the scheme are as follows. The first goal is to increase the number of lady researchers in the country. Another objective is to provide research grants, especially to those who are female researchers and technologists taking a break in their career due to household or domestic compulsions. The scheme also aims to bring about as far as possible, gender parity in the field of science and technology.

Under this scheme, scholarships will be provided within 3 basic categories which are as follows. Women who are associated with research work within central or state level organisations or universities in the field of basic or applied sciences will be given financial assistance through this scholarship. Another category of women researchers who will be provided research scholarship are those who bring about research and application of innovative solutions for solving social problems. Finally, a third category of researchers who can avail of these scholarships are lady scientists or researchers who are self employed.

As per the scheme, the Union Ministry of Science & Technology will also work towards bringing lady researchers to leadership positions. Such a scheme will be useful for women who have faced career breaks due to numerous varied reasons. The scheme was announced by the Minister for Science and Technology & Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh.

The minister was also quoted by the media as saying, “We lose out on many female researchers due to their family reasons. With this scheme, we hope to bring such researchers back to work and gender parity in the research fields in the country.”

The Centre has also decided to make it compulsory for the scientists and researchers of the DST (Department of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences) and CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) to undertake 12 hours of lecture classes in schools as well as colleges during the academic year. “Scientists, who are mostly confined to their labs will share their talent and experience for free as part of their duties, to inculcate in young students a scientific temper and to bring S and T into a larger domain,” Singh said.

The aim is to “catch young talent” according to Singh. The departments especially those which are public funded national institutes will be entering into agreements with schools and colleges. Collaboration for this will be done by the HRD Ministry.

The programme will also be reviewed annually so that the nation is presented a report card regarding it, said Singh. With new initiatives announced by the ministry, KIRAN is a welcome ray of sunshine in the lives of women researchers in India.