IIM, Calcutta to Introduce "Citi Woman Leader Award" for Meritorious Women Students

IIM, Calcutta to Introduce "Citi Woman Leader Award" for Meritorious Women Students

IIM Calcutta is coming up with a new initiative by Citigroup that from the forthcoming academic session a new award entitled Citi Woman Leader Award would be given to the meritorious women students.

This will be in the form of a scholarship. This has been announced by the current Acting Director, Professor Anup Sinha during his speech on the occasion of International Women's Day held on March 8, 2010 at the campus. Students, faculty, and staff members participated in an interactive event presided over by a panel consisting of Prof. Anup K. Sinha, Prof. Annapurna Shaw, Prof. Manisha Chakrabarty, and Chief Administrative Officer, Shri Dinesh Varma.

The Other Facets of the Event

The evening commenced with an address by Mr. Varma. He spoke of the increasing participation of women across the spectrum in public life, and the greater heights that Indian women have reached in their respective fields and gave the names of Hon'ble President of India, Chairperson of UPA government, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and sports personalities like Sania Mirza and Saina Nahiwal. He also assured the women stakeholders of the campus of the institute's commitment to better facilities and support mechanisms.

Mr. Varma was followed by Prof. Sinha, who opened his bilingual address with a poignant summary of the portrayal of women in Bengali arts and culture. He stressed that despite making significant progress, there remains much to be done to bring women up to the point where they can realize their potential and make full and effective use of the opportunities provided to them.

Prof. Annapurna Shaw of the Public Policy group at IIM Calcutta then took the stage and gave an informative lecture on "Poor Women's Access to Education". She nominated female education as the driver behind good health & nutrition, better children's education, smaller family size, and higher family status; and emphasized that higher literacy among women is the key to achieving a better quality of life in a country like ours. Prof. Shaw compared statistics in India with those of countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Myanmar, and Vietnam; where income per head is lower, but women's literacy rates are higher (87% of Vietnamese women are literate as compared to men). In India, adult women's literacy is low in an absolute sense, as well as relative to men's literacy.

The reasons for this state of affairs, Prof. Shaw noted, are manifold - gender-based inequality, occupation of the girl child in domestic chores, low school enrolment, low school retention rates, and obvious socioeconomic disparities. While she acknowledged programs such as the National Literacy Mission and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, she stressed the importance of their effective implementation; and also pointed out that initiatives such as JNNURM and SJSRY do not provide urban education for women. As it is, many corporation schools in urban areas are pushed to closure due to lack of maintenance. Prof. Shaw ended her lecture by outlining easy ways through which we can assist in the advancement of Indian women; such as taking an interest in female domestic workers and their education, supporting NGOs that provide education to the poor, and being vocal in support of measures to increase representation of women in public spheres of life.

Rounding off the evening was a lecture on " Women Then & Now: Evidence from the Indian Labour Market", presented by Prof. Manisha Chakrabarty of the Economics group of IIM Calcutta. She discussed the impact of services-led economic growth on the status of women in the workforce. Using National Sample Survey data from the years 1987-88, 1999-00, and 2004-05, she demonstrated that traditional male dominance at the societal level was significantly mitigated by the post-liberalization growth of the services sector, since it provided an arena in which men and women were provided similar opportunities. Key points to note from Prof. Chakrabarty's presentation were the increased participation of women in the workforce from 1987-88 to 1999-00, and also the narrowing of the gender earnings gap. These trends however, seemed to reverse somewhat by 2004-05, a cautionary sign that things may have improved but that we must give ourselves a periodic reality check.

After the lectures the floor was opened for questions and debate, and a lively discussion followed on topics running the gamut from the Rajya Sabha 33% Reservation Bill to the enduring prevalence of the corporate glass ceiling, the intersection of caste and gender politics, Mayawati, and much more! All in all, the International Women's Day celebration was an engaging, interactive, and entertaining one, reflecting the spirit of cultural and intellectual exchange that is synonymous with IIM Calcutta.

Concluded.

Contributed By-
Aloke Guin,
Public Relations Officer,
IIM, Calcutta.

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