President Pratibha Patil on Saturday called upon women scientists to bring about significant change by working at the grassroot level for womens empowerment
New Delhi, Mar 8 : President Pratibha Patil on Saturday called upon women scientists to bring about significant change by working at the grassroot level for women's empowerment
The participation of women in the dynamic field of science is central not only in our efforts for gender equality, but also to make women stakeholders of the future construct of the world, she told a gathering at the National Conference on Showcasing Cutting Edge Science and Technology by Women at Vigyan Bhawan.
President Patil also lauded the efforts of the Ministry of Science and Technology in promoting women scientists.
Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal who presided over the function pledged to continue with his endeavours to provide a level playing field to women scientists.
Sibal announced that his department aided institutions would provide flexible working hours for women scientists having children up to the age of three years, support the construction of women's residential blocks; and allocate financial support to establish a state-of-art crŠche facility in all institutions.
The Minister also said that for young women scientists in India who are associates of INSA, there will be provision for a research grant of upto Rs.10 lakhs a year for a period of five years.
Sibal said that recognizing the ground reality of women in science, his Ministry has taken fledgling steps to empower women to have their rightful role in science and technology activities thereby contributing to accelerated national development.
As a first step, he said, the Task Force for Women in Science was set up to raise and address issues and problems of women scientists and come up with solutions to enable women scientists and technologists to realize and contribute value of their creative talents to national advantage.
Sibal went on to say that nearly 2,000 women scientists have benefited by the Women Scientists Fellowship Scheme that gives women scientists a spectrum of options to choose from depending upon their aptitude, need, age and family situation.
National Commission for Women chairperson Girija Vyas said that science and technology has helped India to stand up to the challenges of the modern world.
While observing that the atrocities on women are on the rise, Vyas lauded the efforts of the Science and Technology Ministry in the area of Gender Budgeting.
On the occasion which also marked the International Women's day, the Department of Science and Technology conferred the National Award for Women's Development through Application of Science and Technology for the year 2007 to Dr. Rani Bang, SEARCH, Gadchiroli and Dr. K. Vijaya Lakshmi, Development Alternatives, New Delhi and National Women Bio-scientist Award 2007 to Dr. Mitali Mukherjee, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, Dr. Sangita Mukhopadhyay of Centre of DNA Fingure Printing and Diagnostics, Hyderabad and Dr. Sujata Sharma, AIIMS.
Thee two-day conference has been organized by the Department of Science and Technology at the initiative of the National Task Force for Women in Science.
The main purpose of the Conference is to provide an opportunity to women scientists to present their work in select areas such as biology of infectious diseases, advances in non-communicable diseases, aerospace and defence technologies, climate change, nanotechnology and nano-materials and plant biotechnology.
ANI