Women, who constitute 48 per cent of the population, have a crucial role to play if India wants to achieve ‘Vision 2020’ plan of former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, a senior woman scientist in DRDO said here today. “Further, women need to be part of knowledge societies, who gained prominence due to advances in technology and related applications,” Dr Chitra Rajagopal, Associate Director, Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety, DRDO, said. As per these knowledge societies, women have to address issues on how information and ideas are to be created and thereafter, adopted at an accelerating speed, to foster economic growth, improve quality of life and be sustainable for a long time, she said. Dr Chitra was delivering the 24th Convocation address at Avinashilingam Deemed University for Women, here, she said “We can see a clear link between women’s empowerment and development effectiveness and Indian women have excelled in every field,” she said, adding that one of the focal areas requiring attention was reducing the gender gap in higher education. Women’s enrolment, which was less than 10 per cent of total enrolment on the eve of Independence, was now at 41.40 per cent at 56.49 lakh. Of the total women enrolment, 14.72 per cent have enrolled in professional courses, Chitra said. However, women academicians all over the world are heavily under-represented in the University system. As women climb the ladder, their proportion decreased considerably though a large pool of women was waiting ‘in the wings’ to go to the top. “It is therefore essential to build a critical mass of trained women competent to hold senior administrative position shoulder to shoulder with men to help in the process of removing gender barriers,” Chitra said. PTI
