Encourage Dialogues on Women in STEM
IGES encourages dialogues with various stakeholders to understand the barriers that limit women and people of marginalised gender identities to access, engage and lead the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The dialogues unwrap new negotiation strategies and new narratives to overcome those barriers and make the Institute and other academic spaces more diverse and inclusive.
IGES Annual Day Events
- Celebrating Women in Science and Technology (2019) - IGES celebrated the International Women’s Day by commemorating women’s contributions to science and technology. This day-long celebration, organised by IGES on March 13th 2019, had two panel discussions with prestigious women scientists and contributors in STEM, and a keynote talk by a woman scientist, Prof. Chandra Venkataraman. IGES also hosted an exhibition highlighting ten women from diverse socio-economic backgrounds who made exceptional contributions.
- The Power Walk: Celebrating Women and their Powerful Journeys (2020) - The International Women’s Day of 2020 was designed to celebrate women and their powerful journeys. The Keynote Speaker was Ms Uttara Babbar, Supreme Court, Advocate who spoke on the Gender Justice at the Workplace. This was followed by a panel discussion on the Barriers to Diversity in STEM. The day ended with an enigmatic performance by Maya Krishna Rao’s famous theatrical performance ‘Walk’.
JEE Counselling 2018-19
IIT's JAB Committee launched an initiative to boost the admission of young women in STEM subjects at IITs in India. The supernumerary scheme (link to poster) is an effort to increase seats to include more JEE Adv. qualified women candidates. In the last two years, IGES has counselled over 300 women students & their parents seeking IIT opportunities and interesting careers for women in STEM.
Wikipedia Editathon of Women in STEM fields
IGES in collaboration with two organisations, Feminism in India (FII) and The Life of Sciences, organised a Wikipedia Editathon of pages dedicated to women scientists, discoverers and contributors to STEM fields. 14 students from IIT Delhi and other colleges in Delhi edited over 15 pages in this one-day event in February 2019. This was a significant effort to get acquainted with some outstanding women in science and technology.
'Million Women Mentors' Programme by Pepsi Co.
In September 2018, 20 women mentees from IIT Delhi, participated in a Global Mentoring program for women scholars in STEM fields named ‘Million Women Mentors’, initiated by Pepsi Co., to get professionally mentored by senior team members around the themes of career, networking, communication skills and other critical aspects essential for the corporate world. This was a one-on-one mentorship in which each mentor gave around 10 hours to their mentee over two months.
IIT DELHI CALENDER EVENTS
- Participation in Speranza - IGES screened a film “Phools for love” during Speranza, BSW’s youth festival to spark a discussion with students on attraction, love, intimacies, relationships in college with an overarching theme of consent and respect.
- Session on Section 377 and the Law - As part of the short discussion series, IGES undertook an interactive session on the Judgement of the Supreme Court on Section 377, in September 2018. A panel of experts and students who were involved with the petition on Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, engaged in discussion with over 15 participants comprising students and faculty members.
- Student Annual Orientation - IGES puts up a student interaction kiosk at the July and December Orientation day for the new UG, PG and PhD students. In the years 2018 & 2019, more than 1800 UG students who interacted with the IGES members to understand its mandate. IGES developed a poster on the initiative of supernumerary seats (2018) and made a short video to play at the kiosk. More than 2000 PG students attended a separate session organised by IGES to make them aware of its objectives and mandate.