Annual Report 2006-2007

Gender Initiatives

Technologies, products, processes and development models have a tremendous capacity to address the problems facing women both in the farm and non farm sector. To harness the potential of technology to address the issues relevant to women, the department has been implementing schemes exclusively for women since the 6th plan. Gender initiatives of the department have now been expanded to providing special opportunities to women scientists for reentry after a break through gender sensitive initiatives through fellowship schemes, gender budgeting exercise and Awards to recognize efforts to empower women and setting up a task force to ensure that the interests of women practitioners in science are protected, and suggest appropriate measures required to promote women to take up the scientific profession.

Science and Technology for Women - Empowering Rural Women through S&T

The scheme "S&T for Women" is a pioneering gender initiatives of the department The broad objectives of this scheme are to promote development and adaptation of appropriate technologies, transfer of proven technologies and demonstration of live technology models to benefit women. Due to the efforts of the last two decades this programme of DST has made a distinct impact through its innovative approach, gender sensitivity and involvement of S&T based voluntary organizations having strong linkages at the grass root. During the year under the scheme, 44 projects have been sponsored in technology areas such as natural resource management, bio attractants for honey bee, production and fabrication techniques of optical components for scientific/optical instruments, paper recycling technology, root mat production and other modern agricultural practices, nursery techniques for aromatic and medicinal plants cultivation, rural dairy, watershed based soil and water conservation, preservation, processing and post harvest technology of off seasonal vegetables, tissue culture technology.

Technology Development and Transfer

During the course of the year technologies developed were transferred to user groups one such cost effective technology for production of sanitary napkins was based on waste rayon has been developed at Shriram Institute of Industrial Research, New Delhi. Fifteen groups have been trained in the technology on a pilot scale production plant. The technology package is now ready for field trials after location specific adaptation. Concurrently R&D project on standardizing technology for production of sanitary napkins based on waste cotton from hosiery manufacturing and other non traditional substrates has also been taken up.

In a project on standardizing agro technology for plants and trees used for preparation of "Dashamool" an important Ayurvedic preparation. Cultivation trials of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Sonamukhi (Cassia angustifilia), Lendi pippali (Piper longum), Isabgol (Plantago ovata), Shatavari (Asparagus recemosus) and Kawachbeej (Mucuna sp.) have also been taken up at Amba, Patnadevi, Kesri (Danoli), Nangartas, Pabal and Koyna areas of Maharashtra. Apart from agrotechnology for cultivation, basic marketing support was also provided to the women farmers, some of them have taken up cultivation in the successive season on their own. Complete "Dashamool" plating material of 10 species is available for medium scale plantation due to efforts of farmers involved in the project. A series of mixed "Dashamool" plots have been established in more than 6 different areas. Some of the root material harvested from cultivated sources has been processed into "Dashmoolarishtha" and "Dashmool Siddha Taila" and is being used by Ayurvedic practitioners and has already shown very promising results.

The pulses of mountain have always been in high demand because their unique taste and quality. In a project in five villages namely Bon, Malla, Tukhar and Mukhva of Uttarkashi district and Ambiwala village of Dehradun district of Uttaranchal have been developed as pulse villages with trials of improved varieties of seeds and improved agriculture practices. About 120 women (25 from each village) have been trained in cultivation practices, grading and packaging and value added products from pulses.

• Twelve Enterprise Incubators for Rural Women or "Udyamita Suvidha Kendra" are being established in Datia, Madhya Pradesh for transferring various technologies like Pre-Fab VSBK Gasifier, Mechanized pottery, MCR tiles to provide women an opportunity of enhanced livelihood opportunities.

Women's Participation

A well articulated development strategy evolved has ensured the total involvement of women in design and development, implementation and post project sustainability of the programmes. The programmes are formulated in response to felt needs and based on local resources potential available in rural areas such as manpower, artisanal skills, land, water, forest, and livestock. To sustain activities started in the Women Technology Park set up at Dehradun, women have been encouraged to set up a cooperative under Women's Initiative for Self Employment 'WISE'. WISE has a membership of more than 2500 women in Uttrakhand who are involved in S&T based livelihood generation in both farm and non farm activities and micro credit.

Projects completed successfully during this period

A model of rainwater harvesting and recharging system to combat groundwater salinity in coastal aquifers and solving drinking water problem, micro enterprise of rural dairy for empowerment of women, In vitro mass clonal propagation of endangered medicinal plants and their organic cultivation, floral craft for mentally retarded children and cut flower production technology

Rural Women Technology Parks act as windows for providing information, creating awareness, giving training for appropriate technologies leading to skill up gradation and also help establish the all important forward and backward linkages for income generation through micro enterprises for women. These Technology Parks are set up for special terrains such as coastal, hill and arid zone. Eighteen Women Technology parks have been facilitated in the States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharahtra, Pondicherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Technology areas, which will be addressed in these WTP's, are post harvest processing, soil fertility management, medicinal plant cultivation and semi processing, nursery techniques, aquaculture, energy. Showcasing drudgery reduction devises and women's health are also a major focus of these centres.

Coordinated programmes:

Fodder and Animal feed

A need based programme to ensure availability of fodder round the year to rural women engaged in animal husbandry is being implemented in 12 different agroclimatic regions of the country. The salient feature of this programme is the tie up between technology development agencies and S&T based Voluntary Organization's, technology back up, field visits by experts, midcourse suggestions and constant monitoring Technology areas include (a) Year round fodder production technology- cultivation of cereals and legumes in rotational manner (b) Up gradation of poor quality roughages (c) silage preparation (d) preparation of silo pits (e) silvipasture development (f) fodder production bunds (g) cultivation of perennial grasses. The technology for preservation of fodder has now been standardized. Ten women at each site have been trained in profitable usage of this technology. As an outcome of this project: (i) a simple low cost chara cutting device has been developed women (ii) training has been conducted for all project partners at BAIF, Pune to impart modern techniques of preservation and management of fodder.

Coordinated programme on women's health

Women of postmenopausal age group suffer from multiple problems such as-poor nutrition, cardiovascular disorders, osteoporosis, malignancies, and depression. Many of these are related to old age exacerbated by decline in the hormonal levels due to menopause. A multicentric study on Development of prevention and intervention strategies for nutrition related non-communicable disorders among post reproductive period women has been launched at 8 locations of the country involving medical doctors and nutritionist. The programme is being coordinated by AIIMS, New Delhi. Data collected is being documented and location specific intervention programmes are being implemented.

National Award for Women's Development through Application of Science & Technology

This award was instituted in the year 2000 with an aim to recognize the contribution of individuals/ organizations who have worked at the grass root level for women's development through application of science and technology. The award carries a cash award of Rs.1.00 lakh along with a citation. The award is open to the resident Indian citizens / institution that have a minimum of 10 years contribution through application of S&T at the grass root level for women's development. In the year 2005 the award was conferred on Dr. Pushpa Gupta, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur and Dr. Shobha Suryaprakasa Rao, Scientist F, Agarkar Research Institute, Pune

Programme to be started shortly

A coordinated programme on "Large scale employment generation in coastal India through sustainable utilization of marine bio-resources" is planned to be initiated soon. A brainstorming workshop to design the programme was organized. Subject experts and potential partners from selected States were invited for the workshop. The focus of the meeting was to discuss potential in cultivation, processing and value addition of seaweeds with direct benefits for coastal women. Discussion was held on priority species (keeping in view of environmental considerations), locations having greatest potential for implementation, economics post harvest technologies, ecological sharing and post tsunami effects on cultivation potential.

A coordinated programme on soil fertility management through use of PROM (Phosphate Rich Organic Manures) is also being planned to be initiated. This new technique developed involves co-composting high grade rock phosphate in very fine size with organic waste to become an alternative to costly chemical fertilizers. The technology package will involve multidisciplinary approach that covers mineralogy, granulometry and size reduction, soil science agronomy microbiology biochemistry and engineering. Gender Initiatives

Fellowship Scheme for Women Scientists

The 'Women Scientists Scheme (WOS) of the Department of Science and Technology is aimed at providing opportunities to women scientists and technologists for pursuing research in frontier areas of science and engineering. A special provision has been made under this Scheme to encourage those women scientists who have had break in their careers. It provides a launch pad for them to return to mainstream science and work as bench-level scientists in the field of science and technology. This Scheme became operational in 2003.

Under the WOS-A scheme a total of 74 projects were sanctioned during this year. The subject-wise distribution of sanctioned projects was: life sciences - 38; chemical sciences - 15, physical and mathematical sciences - 6; earth and atmospheric sciences - 6; and engineering sciences - 9. The age-wise distribution of selected candidates indicated that maximum number of selected candidates were in the age-group of 35-45 years which seemed to justify the aim of the Scheme. A total of 390 new proposals were received (life sciences - 245, chemical sciences - 66, physical and mathematical sciences - 34, earth and atmospheric sciences - 25, and engineering sciences - 20) during the year. Fifty six (56) of these projects were approved for financial support. The overall success rate was 18%.

The monitoring exercise for the projects funded under the Scheme has been initiated. During the year, the Department monitored 170 ongoing projects. Out of these, 2 were graded excellent, 8 - very good, 55 - good, 99 - satisfactory and 6 were graded poor. This indicated that the technical selection of these projects had been quite good.

The fellowship scheme for Women Scientists for Societal Programmes (WOS-B)

Considers applications in the challenging inter disciplinary field for the development of the society. Applications for the fellowship are invited from all over the country once in every year in different subject areas. After thorough scrutiny by the Secretariat, valid applications are screened in by an internal Expert Committee. Screened scientists are then invited for presentation before an Expert Committee. 47candidates were selected for awarding the scholarship for the year.

Achievements in some projects supported under this scheme are:

Optimization of process for juice extraction from fresh flower and standardization of methodology for development of nutraceutical products and their analysis has been achieved. Shelf life study and sensory evaluation test of the products developed has been studied. Value added collection of the underutilized nonwood forest products (Mahua) for their industrial utilization and transfer of technology package to set small scale industries for rural employment generation has been developed and the information is being patented.

• In a project on study of Lichens as bio-indicators for air pollution has demonstrated that a luxuriant growth of lichens (Crustose, Foliose & Fructicose) in a pollution free area while at urban sites where the air quality is not suitable for the growth of sensitive lichens (like Usnea sp.) has lower lichen diversity.
• Development of standard operating procedures for different Ayurvedic formulations. Three popular and more frequently used indigenous formulations for ladies viz. Ashokarishta, Suparipak and Kumariasava were selected as test formulations for the development of SOPs. Formulation for them has been successfully developed.
• A women friendly direct four row paddy seeder with ergonomic design features including enhanced performance and efficiency of man-equipment system along with comfort and safety of farm women has been developed. The design features include four row paddy seeder with plastic material of 200mm diameter hyperboloid shape filled to half of its capacity with 9 numbers of 10mm seed metering holes.
• Standardization of technique for producing seed materials of seaweeds by tissue culture and demonstration of seaweeds farming technology to socio-economically people in Goa. The process of filing the process patent has been initiated.
• Integrated Pest Management (IPM) package against mealy bug for Tukra infestation in their mulberry gardens and Training to 35 Women Seri culturists on Mass production of mealy bug Predators in H. Kodihalli and Bommandoddi in Karnataka has been carried out.
• Under capacity building and economic upliftment of rural women through integrated livestock fish-crop farming project a model system has been developed at village - Basoli.

Fellowship Scheme for Creating Self-Employment Opportunities in IPR (WOS-C)

27 women scientists have been selected by Patent Facilitating Centre (PFC) after an all India competition comprising of a written test and a rigorous interview. The training exercise started in January 2006. They have been given a one year on-the-job training in patent searches, patent interpretation and drafting, IPR

laws including patent laws, preparing technology scan reports based on patent searches and other data using different patent databases, international treaties related to IPR, IP licensing. On the job training was provided at attorney firms and government agencies dealing with IP matters. The candidates have been placed for training with the leading IP firms of the country such as Anand and Anand, Lakshmikumaran & Shridharan, K & S Partners, S. Majumdar and Co., Lall Lahiri and Salhotra and Subramaniam, Natraj & Associates, PFC, CSIR, ICMR and Patent Information Center (PIC), Punjab.

As a part of the training all the candidates have been given a solid foundation in IPR through a 3 weeks orientation programme with the help of national and international experts in all areas of IPR. Hands on training on patent searches was one important component of the programme.Two workshops were conducted for the candidates. One of them held in July 2006 was exclusively on "Drafting of the patent applications" and the other one on "Trademarks, Copyright and Designs" was held in January 2007.

Many candidates who have completed the training have found employment in law firms and other places. The selection procedure for the next batch of women scientists has already begun. About 30-40 women candidates have been planned to be trained in the third batch in 2007-2008.

It is hoped that this initiative of PFC would help building up a large work force of women scientists having expertise in different domains of knowledge to handle conceptual, operational and management issues related to IPR in days to come. Gender Initiatives

National Task Force for Women in Science

A Task force for Women in Science under the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology was set up in on December 26, 2005. The main purpose of the Task Force is to ensure that the interests of women scientists are protected, and that appropriate measures required to promote women to take up the scientific professions are taken up. Since its constitution, the Task Force has had three meetings at Delhi on March 10, 2006, Hyderabad on June 22, 2006 and Jaipur on November 2-3, 2006. In these meetings a brain storming meeting with group of women scientists, college teachers and PG students is also held to record their views. The interim recommendations of the TF have been sent to the Planning Commission steering committee on Science and Technology. Some important decisions on which action is being simultaneously initiated are: A website and a directory of women scientists is being operationalized, data pertaining to women scientists to be collected, questionnaire on steps pertaining to reduction of stress on women scientists, articles on achievements of women Steps to chronicle life histories of successful past and present women scientists is being done.