Lok Sabha Question No. 2417 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-18
Subject: STEM Role in Women Empowerment
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Debasree Chaudhuri

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2417

ANSWERED ON 18 th  December, 2023

## STEM Role in Women Empowerment

2417. MS. DEBASREE CHAUDHURI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a)      whether  the  Government  is  aware  that  Science,  Technology,  Engineering  and Mathematics (STEM) education can play a significant role in women's empowerment and can transform gender norms, accelerate and smoothen their transition between education and technical jobs; and
- (b)   if  so, the details of steps proposed to be taken by Government keeping in view that Government Educational Institutions, parents, as well as companies, need to view genderresponsive  STEM  as  a  promising  educational  approach,  integral  to  quality  learning  and women empowerment?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUBHAS SARKAR)

- (a)  &  (b):  Education  falls  under  the  concurrent  list  and  thus,  both  Central  and  State Government take various initiatives  to  ensure  quality  higher  education  in  the  country.  To promote  female  students  to  pursue  higher  education  and  research,  All  India  Council  for Technical  Education  (AICTE)  has  introduced  Pragati  Scholarship  and  TechSaksham Program  (TSP)  for  women.  The  Pragati  Scholarship  was  started  in  the  year  2014  to award  scholarship  to  meritorious  girl  students  to  encourage  them  to  pursue  higher technical education. AICTE is awarding 10000 scholarships (Pragati) every year to the girls  entering  in  the  technical  education.  TechSaksham  Program  is  a  top-up  program that  uses  experiential  learning  to  develop  employability  skills  amongst  underserved female students pursuing higher technical education.

With  a  view  to  improve  female  enrolment  in  the  Undergraduate  Programmes  in  Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), supernumerary seats were created which increased the female enrolment from 8% in 2018-19 to 20% in 2020-21.

Other Ministries/ Departments like the Department of Biotechnology, has initiated a special programme namely the Biotechnology Career Advancement and Re-orientation Programme (BioCARe) to promote and support women in science which aims at providing support to Doctoral and Post-doctoral research project grants to women scientists. The Department of

Science and Technology is empowering women in STEM fields through its umbrella scheme 'Women in Science and Engineering-KIRAN (WISE-KIRAN)'. The Vigyan Jyoti programme under  the  WISE-KIRAN  Scheme  aims  to  encourage  meritorious  girls  to  pursue  higher education and careers in STEM fields which have a lower representation of women. The Vigyan Jyoti Programme is being implemented since 2020 in 250 districts of the country and benefitted  around  50000  girls  of  Class  IX-XII.  Apart  from  various  STEM-related  activities, parent-student counselling is part and parcel of the Vigyan Jyoti  Programme, to sensitize parents about the importance and benefit of STEM education for girls as  a better career perspective.  The  Navodaya  Vidyalaya  Samiti  (NVS)  is  the  implementing  partner  of  this programme.  Another  programme,  'Gender  Advancement  for  Transforming  Institutions (GATI)', is also playing an important role, in sensitization of higher educational institutions to adopt a more gender-sensitive approach in STEM education and career to achieve gender equality.

With these and other measures, there has been consistent improvement in the enrolment of female students in STEM Courses. As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), the number of Female students enrolled in STEM Courses has increased from 35.14 Lakh in 2014-15 to 41.93 Lakh in 2021-22 (Provisional), which is a significant increase of 19.3%.

*****