Lessons from IIIT-B: Building an ecosystem where women thrive, not just survive
IIIT-B, as a higher education institution, has enjoyed a very healthy gender ratio in faculty, staff and Master's degree programs. Amidst the research scholars, women outnumber men by a large margin! This has played a pivotal role in shaping the institute's administrative policies that ensure zero gender bias. We are early embracers of a Gender Cell and also ICC (Internal Complaints Committee) to prevent and address complaints of sexual harassment, both mandated for higher education institutions.
There is a common hostel mess where the same food is served for all the students, staff and faculty, common hostel rules including curfew timings, a common cafeteria that is open till 1 AM, a separate gym for men and women, both male and female doctors available for free medical consultation, hygienic and environmental-friendly disposal of sanitary waste, segregation of all waste at source and many such more administrative initiatives and policies that witness the gender-friendly nature of IIIT-B.
On the dual degree and under-graduate programs, like all other top engineering institutions, IIIT-B lacks a healthy gender ratio. To increase the number of girl students, the institute has provided scholarships to women UG students, in their first year and in the pre-final year. We have a club of students that pursues several activities pertaining to women in technology, including mentoring for technical and communication skills, participation in hackathons and gender diversity initiatives of the technology firms, sports activities and many more. Aptly named Lean-In, the girls-only club is a front runner in the institute, showcasing the well known saying 'Together we (girls) can!'.
Our girl students are very active in several other extra-curricular activities in the institute---superb photographers, consummate choreographers and dancers, pros in team sports, skilled musicians, a proud teacher's attempt at this list will never end! On an average, if our students win medals in inter-collegiate competitions and programming contests, there is almost always a girl in the team or in one of the teams! This is despite not being the majority in terms of the number of students. Our team of three female integrated MTech students qualified for the regional ACM ICPC Programming Contest, more programming power to them! We are so proud of our female students that the institute launched a series of video interviews with our alumni, showcasing their achievements in pursuing higher studies in research and being top coders in large multi-national firms. Look for a series titled 'Taking wings for research' and 'Coding dreams coming true' in the IIIT-B official YouTube channel, the video interviews proudly present faculty interacting with our alumni who are our shining stars!
To summarize, IIIT-B, as an institution, is committed to promoting and continuing gender equality and firmly believes that 'Women hold up half the sky', to start with, in the institute and after they graduate, in the technology world!