Respected Sir,

I read your article in THE HINDU , titled ‘’From Empowerment to Growth with S&T” appeared
06.09.2010.I seriously disagree with one of your point that male professor of elite institutes like IITs do
not favour entrance of female in S&T sector.On the contrary there are several factors which comes into
play when we analyse this complex issue.To take them one by one ;first ,woman feels Maths and
technology subject harder for them .So they select subjects like English or Biology ,where one can
memorise more.Second ,parents are more worried for early marriage of their daughters than son.They
feel daughter as burden and won’t allow them to do PhD or further study this also explain why many
women won’t make it to Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award.Third , Parents also do not want to send their
daughter to far away from their home for studies.So for instance if girls make it to an institute of A++
category and institute is located in Chennai obviously parents generally prefer for their daughter to do
study in nearby institute of doesn’t matter B+ category.The perception is also prevalent among parents
that if girl will study more there it will be harder to find a perfect match for her as in India husband
should be more educated or at better position than his wife.There is also other factors that creep in ;the
correct cause will be known if data would be compare in manner that shows how many girls out of total
number of girls studying in colleges or even higher level made it to Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar or similar
awards divided by total number of girls in college or higher level and this should be compered with boys
in same manner .If later turns out to be higher than former than obviously there are social factors
causing problems otherwise psychological or IQ is something that is responsible.

Yours

Sudhir Pandey

(IITB alumni and currently lecturer at APIIIT ,Kadapa,Andhra Pradesh)

Black Hole_Region of space that nothing could escape it not even a light.How about Rajnikanth?