Celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav under the theme ‘Women in S&T and S&T for Women’ was organised through virtual mode on 30th March 2022
A Webinar was organised under the theme ‘Women in S&T and S&T for Women’ on 30 March 2022 by Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST), Department of Information and Science Technology, Government of Uttarakhand & Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India New Delhi. This program was celebrated as a part of Vigyan Utsav, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. The session begins with the welcome address of Dr D.P. Uniyal, Joint Director, UCOST, Dehradun. Dr Uniyal introduces all the speakers of this session. Dr Debapriya Dutta, Advisor, SEED and State S&T Program (SSTP), Dept. of Science and Technology, GoI, New Delhi was the first speaker of the session. He welcomed all the women dignitaries who were invited to the talk. He talked about the importance of women in Science and Technology and gave information about various programs organised by the Department of Science and Technology, to promote women researchers & scientists. Dr Kirti Joshi, Former Scientific Officer, UCOST talked on the topic ‘Women in Science: Assessing their participation in Science & Technology. She gave detailed data on the percentage of women in higher education, the women’s workforce in the field of science & technology and talked about related issues and invisible barriers women have to face. She also discussed the detailed study carried out by the Council for assessing the participation of women in Science and Technology in 93 universities in five states of India, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Punjab. She said that professional recruitment in the Science discipline should be increased and national institutes should promote women’s participation in science and technology. Prof Ranjana Pathania, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Roorkee gave a detailed presentation on the topic “Women Scientists in Research & Development”. She talked about her journey in science & technology, her research findings on antibiotics and talked about comparative study of life before & after the use of antibiotics. She said that we should focus on research about alternatives to antibiotics in agriculture, poultry, livestock and fisheries sector. Dr Anupama Bahadur, Prof & Unit Head, Department of OBGYN, AIIMS, Rishikesh gave a presentation on the topic “Women Scientists in Health Sector-Challenges and Achievements”. She gave a presentation on cervical cancer, its causes and how it can be prevented and cured. She said that due to cervical cancer 200 women die every day, 8 women die every hour and one woman dies every 7 minutes. She also said that every woman is at risk of cervical cancer. She talked about the primary prevention of cervical cancer, its vaccination and various side effects. She said that there is no established national screening program for the prevention of cervical cancer in India. She also described the procedure of robotic surgery for cervical cancer and its advantages. She also said that it is our responsibility to make next-generation comfortable with the various emerging technologies. Another speaker of the session was Prof Veena Pandey, Department of Biotechnology; Kumaon University. She talked on the topic “Achievements in the academic sector- by State’s Women Scientist”. She talked about her journey and achievements in the field of science and research. Dr Aparna Sharma, Sr. Scientific Officer, UCOST, Dehradun gave a presentation on the topic “UCOST initiatives in Promoting S&T amongst women in Uttarakhand”. She introduces various activities and initiatives like the State Science Congress, Science popularization programs, Science Conclaves and workshops organised and various initiatives taken by the Council for the promotion of science and technology in the State. Dr Rajendra Dobhal, Director General, UCOST gave the concluding remark and he talked about the achievements of women in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). He congratulates all the women on doing excellent work in their respective fields of science and technology. Dr Rashmi Sharma, Scientist, DST GoI, New Delhi; Dr Ravikant, Scientist, DST GoI, New Delhi; UCOST staff; Biotech Council staff and more than 100 researchers, students and scientists participated in this event.