NEW DELHI: There is immense opportunity in the area of innovation for women and they need systems that are friendly and flexible enough for them to use their educational qualifications to contribute more to the field and the GDP, Delhi High Court Judge Justice Prathiba M Singh said on Wednesday.
She was delivering the inaugural address in the HC on the topic, ‘Facing the unseen barriers: Addressing challenges faced by Women in Science, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Mathematics (STEM)’. The meet was organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s WISE Council (Women in Science and Entrepreneurship).
She said in India, the overall number of women STEM graduates is 43 per cent, more than in many
developed countries. “In the US it’s 34 per cent, in the UK it’s 38 per cent, in Germany it’s 27 per cent and in France, it’s 32 per cent. “In India, it’s 43 per cent, which means we are educating our girls properly,’ Justice Singh said.
She said women are mentally very intuitive, creative and innovative and Indian women are ‘’lucky” as the country is much more progressive and is seeing more of them in leadership roles. However, she expressed concern that despite being innovative and creative, women are not able to bring about actual material inventions that can be commercialised and can help them in making more progress in society.
Justice Singh said that the evident brain drain in India is ‘because we have not allowed our women to come out and to contribute to GDP’. “It is not about empowerment, it is about putting the best systems in place to make sure that the systems are women-friendly and flexible enough for women to use their educational qualifications to contribute to the GDP. There is a huge opportunity in the field of innovation for mentorship,” the judge said.
In B.Tech, the figure is 42 per cent, in M-Tech it is 63 percent, and in medical and health-related courses it is 30-35 per cent, according to data for 2018-19. However, the research papers authored by women in India are only 3-4 per cent, which is appalling.
“So where have all the 40 per cent women gone? It is just so contrasting that I was so shocked. If you take joint authorship then it is 47 per cent. So somewhere down the line as a team, there are women but as individual authors, they are unable to come out on their own,” she said.