Preeti Aghalyam, the first woman to become an Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) director said that women were still a minority at the campuses. She said that despite constant efforts to improve the gender ratio on campuses, there was still a long way to go.
While the first IIT was set up at Kharagpur in 1951, it was after seven decades that a woman has been appointed head of the prestigious institute. But for Ms. Aghalayam, director-in-charge of the new IIT in Zanzibar, it is not just about breaking the glass ceiling but also living the “once an IITian, always an IITian” theory.
IIT-Madras, set up in 1959, has become the first IIT in the country to launch an international campus, with the new institute in Zanzibar in Tanzania set to begin its first academic session in October. Ms. Aghalayam has spent the last few months travelling from India to Zanzibar and is busy setting things in motion.
“For me, the fact that it is the first IIT campus abroad is more important than me being the first woman to head an IIT. It is not just about breaking the glass ceiling for me. It is more of ‘once and IITian, always an IITian’ for me,“ she said.
“I studied at IIT Madras. I have worked at IIT Bombay before and have been teaching at IIT Madras since 14 years, so it is just an extension of the kind of love and passion that I have for how things work at an IIT... Many of my great friends are from IITs and I also met my husband at IIT Madras,” Ms. Aghalyam said.
Ms. Aghalyam’s appointment comes at a time when several IITs have been making a conscious effort to improve the skewed gender ratio on campus.
“It is a fact that women have been a minority at IITs. Things have improved a bit in the past few years but the problem still exists and it is at all levels — both at student and faculty [level]. We are about 12% women faculty at IIT Madras. The problem is not about gender inclusivity on campuses but about whole perception around technology institutions,” she said.
History of women in IITs
Engineering colleges in India have come a long way since the 1990s when the ratio of men and women enrolment was 10:1. This ratio decreased to 7:1 in the early 2000s, and to 4:1 in the mid and late 2000s. It deteriorated further in 2014 when most of the IITs had anywhere between 5% and 12% of women population on their campuses.
IITs admitted 995 women and 9,883 men, a year before the supernumerary quota was introduced for women in 2018. During the admission for 2022-23 academic session, as many as 3,310 women, or 20% of the total number of seats, have confirmed admissions across the 23 IITs.
Asked about if her appointment was a conscious call to send out a strong message about gender inclusivity, Ms. Aghalayam said, “Every time we visited Zanzibar as part of the IIT Madras contingent, we noticed that the representation of women on their side is quite significant. So, it was important that we do this mindfully and our effort will also be to have gender balance in the new campus. There are no rigid norms around it right now but in the coming years, we will definitely work towards achieving it.”
Preeti Aghalyam’s background
Ms. Aghalayam completed her Bachelors (BTech) in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1995 and her PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2000. She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, Cambridge and faculty at IIT Bombay.
Ms. Aghalayam joined IIT Madras in 2010, where she is currently a Professor in the Chemical Engineering department. She was recently acknowledged as one of the 75 Women in STEM by the Principal Scientific Adviser’s office.
Ms. Aghalayam has been the nodal officer for the Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI) programme at IIT Madras.
“As part of the programme, my colleagues and I had a chance to look at gender-segregated data in every sphere which helped us examine ourselves. We had put together concrete plans which could make the institute gender equal in terms of both numbers and opportunities. These steps will be part of my mission at the new campus too,” she said.
