Bridging the Gap: Women in STEM | Centre For Civil Society

At A Glance

Inculcating a scientific temperament and spirit of enquiry among young women is imperative to encourage their participation in STEM education and careers. Our initiatives—policy dialogues, research, outreach, financial aid, and mentorship—aim to support this goal.

Meet our Mascot

CCS Women in STEM's Mascot Vigyan with Vidya

Vidya, the resident mascot for CCS’s women in STEM initiative, was first introduced to the public in 2021. She appears in a slew of social media outreach posts along with #VigyaanWithVidya

Impact

464

Scholarships Awarded

33

Partner Institutes

250+

Stakeholders Engaged

Initiatives

Aid and Mentorship

In partnership with Procter & Gamble India, under its CSR initiative ‘Shiksha’, we provide financial and mentorship support to meritorious girls from under-resourced backgrounds to pursue STEM courses.

Analysis

Through our research we provide valuable insights and policy recommendations on the issue of the gender gap in STEM to enable better policies, a shift in discourse as well as an improvement in the status of women in STEM across South Asia.

Dialogues and Events

We organize round table discussions and policy dialogues to bring together stakeholders from government, academia, corporates and civil society to create a discourse on women in STEM and pool best practices and recommendations to be considered

Outreach

We leverage social media to disseminate information and key statistics as well as highlight inspiring stories of women STEM. We also have a girl child mascot named Vidya who often appears in these social media posts under the #VigyaanWithVidya

Short Film: Sanrachna

Aid and Mentorship

P&G Shiksha Betiyan Scholarship Program for Girls in STEM Centre for Civil Society has joined hands with Procter and Gamble, under its CSR initiative ‘Shiksha’, to encourage girls to pursue rewarding careers in STEM sectors. Despite the immense potential for career growth and improved quality of life, few women step into STEM sectors. As a first step towards encouraging women to pursue careers in manufacturing and production sectors, we have launched 'Betiyan' - a Scholarship program for girls pursuing engineering-related courses in various ITIs across the country. The core objective of this program is to support girl students in pursuing skill development courses that nurture skills relevant to various jobs in STEM sectors.

Women in Sciences and Pharma - Scholarship Program CCS collaborated with Procter & Gamble Health Limited to offer scholarships to girl students pursuing Bachelors and Masters degree in pharmacy and diplomas in pharmaceutical management. In 2023, we are extending the scholarship to girls pursuing Bachelors in Sciences (across natural sciences fields), with the objective of encouraging more women to pursue rewarding careers in science.

Analysis

REPORT

Mind the Gap: Policy, Discourse and Status of Women in STEM in South Asia

South Asia as a region performs the most poorly on the gender gap when compared with other regions around the world—having closed only 62.4% of its gender gap in 2022. Women are not just underrepresented in the political sphere in South Asian countries, they are also largely absent from leadership roles among key ministries dealing with Science and Technology. A leaky pipeline phenomenon is visible in most parts of the region, as women start dropping out (leak out) of the potential STEM workforce.

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