Executive urges IIT to boost female students’ STEM education

Calling women the most untapped human resource in developing countries such as India, a Johnson & Johnson executive urged the IIT to take the initiative to empower girls and women in India through STEM education.

It can be “an important catalyst” in breaking the cycle of poverty across the country, said Seema Kumar, vice president of innovation, global health and policy communications at Johnson & Johnson, addressing the annual conference of the IIT Madras Alumni Association of North America on June 13 in New Jersey.

Kumar, the keynote speaker, said empowering them is not only a moral and development imperative but could spur economic growth in several ways. “It could also have generational multiplier impact on the benefits of the society at large,” Kumar told the gathering of about 40 people.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey conference was held in partnership with members of South Asian Professional Networking Association (SAPNA) team from Johnson & Johnson. Attending the conference from IIT Madras were Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director of the school, and R. Nagarajan, dean of international and alumni relations along with a few current and former students.

Kumar highlighted how STEM education could become critical to stable economic growth and holds the key to food, nutrition and population growth.

“A lot of the IITians, whether in India or living in the U.S., are highly successful professionals and owe much of their success to their education at schools like Madras IIT which is rated as one of the top educational institutions in India. These former students now want to give back to their country of origin by investing their money, talent or time for the development of the country, but they want to make all these available through their alma mater,” Andy Bala IITMAANA secretary, told India Abroad.

Bala said such investments would result in a win-win situation for all the stakeholders, including the IIT because it would help them go beyond training world-class engineers and scientists and take part in the development of the society.

He said a small nonprofit in California has already embarked on women’s empowerment through a pilot project in Bihar and they are spending their own money.

“IIT Madras through its alumni can replicate that model and can take up one model/pilot project somewhere in Tamil Nadu which later can be scaled up with involvement of state or the union government in other parts of India,” Bala said.