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| Bridging the Gender Gap: Empowering Women in Indian STEMM Fields with the SWATI Portal. [Source: ForumIAS] |
In February 2024, the Indian government took a significant step towards fostering gender equality in science and technology with the launch of the SWATI (Science for Women - A Technology & Innovation) portal. Developed by the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), this interactive platform aims to showcase the remarkable achievements of Indian women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) fields. The SWATI portal addresses the pressing need to bridge the gender gap in STEMM, where women constitute only 13-15% of researchers in India, significantly lower than many G20 nations. This initiative seeks to elevate the visibility of women scientists, promote inclusivity, and catalyze a movement towards gender parity in Indian science.
Key Features of SWATI Portal:
- Self-Registration Profiles: Women students, faculty, and scientists across all levels can create profiles on the SWATI portal, highlighting their expertise, qualifications, publications, and contributions in STEMM fields.
- Dynamic Analytics Dashboard: The portal offers a comprehensive analytics dashboard, providing real-time insights into the distribution of women in STEMM roles across different states and institutions. This feature enables stakeholders to identify disparities and tailor interventions accordingly.
- Collaboration Opportunities: SWATI facilitates collaborations among women in STEMM through expert outreach, forums, and open access resources available in both English and Hindi. This fosters a supportive environment for knowledge exchange and professional growth.
Addressing Inclusion Challenges:
- Data-Driven Interventions: Analysis of portal data enables the design of targeted counseling programs and returnship policies, customized to address the unique challenges faced by women in different states and domains.
- Opportunity Initiatives: Domain-specific polls on the portal enable the identification of key areas where women face barriers to participation. This data informs the development of initiatives aimed at providing equal opportunities for women in STEMM fields.
- Scholarship Alerts: The SWATI portal provides automated scholarship alerts, empowering women scientists with information on funding opportunities and resources to further their research and academic pursuits.
Realizing the Vision:
- Increasing Visibility: By showcasing the accomplishments of women in STEMM fields, SWATI aims to inspire more girls to pursue careers in science and technology, with the goal of surpassing a 25% representation threshold by 2030.
- Commercialization Opportunities: The portal serves as a platform for connecting women scientists with investors and corporates, fostering innovation and commercialization of research projects.
- Catalyzing Gender Parity: Through its efforts to lift the veil of invisibility surrounding women in Indian science, SWATI strives to catalyze a watershed movement towards gender parity, ultimately creating a more inclusive and diverse scientific ecosystem.