5.3.4 Choice of Engineering Education among Girls in India – The Journey so far, Journal of Engineering Education Transformations (2020), 

DOI: 10.16920/jeet/2021/v34i0/157166

Geethalakshmi PM, Research Scholar, Department of Humanities & Management, MIT, MAHE Manipal, Karnataka; Sumam David S, Professor, Department of E&C, NITK Surathkal, Karnataka; Vinod V. Thomas, Professor, Department of E&E, MIT, MAHE Manipal, Karnataka

Despite the narrow gap in the sex ratio of boys to girls’ enrollment in higher education in India, there is a stark gender disparity in engineering enrolment The exact figure of the enrolment of girls in engineering programs is merely 27.5 per cent. Through the positive measure of introducing supernumerary quota for girls, the Ministry of Education aims to significantly increase the enrolment of girls which was particularly low in the case of the IITS and NITS across the country. The exact figures quoted by the study were 8% and 14 % in the IITS and NITS respectively in 2016-17 which gradually increased to 20% in 2020-21. The study alerted that it is important to understand the various causal factors responsible for the unwillingness of girls in selecting the field of engineering for their higher education. It highlighted that girls were reluctant to enrol for engineering courses despite the fact that the nature of engineering jobs seems to have evolved to be gender neutral. Moreover,  as the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is targeting to achieve a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 50% by 2035 from the current 27 % - the article seeks to review extant studies to understand the intersecting external and internal factors that ultimately influence girls’ choices of higher education. Accordingly, an exhaustive literature review of relevant published and unpublished research articles for the past two decades was carried out. This article addresses the dearth in research conducted at the national level post 2004 by exploring the reasons for the disproportionate representation of girls in engineering education in India. It highlights that particularly the socio-cultural factor of the dominant influence of parental perceptions played a key role in girls’ enrolment in engineering studies. Increasing awareness among parents and girls about the subject could bring about the required results.

2. Does gender difference matter in job satisfaction? A case of academicians in Karnataka, Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (2020), 

DOI https://doi.org/10.47836/PJSSH.28.4.14 

Shreemathi S. Mayya, Maxie Martis, P. Sureshramana Mayya Department of Data Science

This article was co-authored by Shreemathi S. Mayya, Department of Data Science, Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka; Maxie Martis, College of Nursing, Khamis Mushayt, King Khalid University, Abha, Asir, Saudi Arabia; and Sureshramana Mayya, Faculty of Management, Poornaprajna Institute of Management, Udupi, Karnataka. They argue that creating and disseminating knowledge is the main job of academic organizations. Academicians require organizational support in order to successfully accomplish their daily academic goals and various other time-consuming tasks efficiently. Job satisfaction is a necessary prerequisite to ensure that employees of an organization consistently dedicate themselves towards high standards of work quality and productivity. Job satisfaction is the ‘overall feeling of liking one’s job’ (Spector, 1997). Job satisfaction is often connected with various facets of a job pay, recognition/reward, training, organizational structure, promotion opportunities, and so on. This particular study, with a cross-sectional design, was aimed to assess the gender-wise job satisfaction and its primary causal factors among academicians, higher education institutions in Karnataka. It is a questionnaire-based study. The study revealed that job satisfaction was satisfactory. Furthermore, there was no general disparity found between the responses of male and female academicians. Job satisfaction in several aspects namely: promotion, supervision, co-workers, facilities, and working hours – however, brought out significant differences in the responses from male and female academicians. Often socio-demographic factors, government or government-aided institutions, and the age of the academician were factors associated with job satisfaction. These findings particularly indicate room for improvement in several areas like infrastructure facilities, transparency on the promotion process, impartial distribution of workload, social environment promoting gender equality, and better interpersonal relationships. This study was conducted among the academicians of Arts, Science, Commerce, and Management colleges of Karnataka is novel as this is a pioneering systematic inquiry among academicians from diverse fields.

3. Looking through the lens of a sexual assault examiner: novel trends and approaches in forensic photography, Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences (2021)

DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s41935-021-00241-7

Renjulal Yesodharan, Tessy Treesa Jose, M. Nirmal Krishnan, S. Anitha, Vinod C. Nayak,  Department of Psychiatric (Mental Health) Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing, ManipalManipal College of Nursing, ManipalDepartment of Forensic medicine, Kasturba Medical College, ManipalKasturba Medical College, Manipal

Sexual violence is a horrifying reality of society and it affects all levels of society across boundaries of age, gender, ethnicity, competence, and social identity. Definition of provision of excellent healthcare service also incorporates the requirement of professionals trained in analysing information about and conducting of sexual assault examination, collection of medico-legal evidence, take forensic photographs of patients involved in any assault and documentation in relation to the victims or perpetrators body. Clinical forensic photography is used to document graphic evidence because it becomes legal evidence or proof helping solve many cases (Bhattacharya 2014; Wittmann 2017). Forensic photography is primarily focused on photography of patients’ anatomy (US Department of Justice 2013) directly involved in any assault and its documentation – be it of the victims or perpetrators body or other aspects of the crime scene, whether or not it is directly connected to the crime. These pictures also might be used to track gradual progress of injuries or wounds and for any assistance in case of any further follow-up visits (Edirisinghe et al. 2020; US Department of Justice 2013). These might also be used to obtain second opinions when necessary The main purpose of the article to delineate the novel methods in forensic photography and to find ways to ensure authenticity and integrity of digital photographs. This includes various crucial components like digital cameras and its accessories, e-consent, forensic software alongside various procedural protocols in forensic photography. Inadequacies like improper and inadequate information gathering and the questions of conditions of its conservation and final presentation of evidence often can lead to errors at the crime scene and thereby reducing the number of conviction rates. It is argued here that training in forensic photography is, therefore, urgent and significant and definitely a game-changer in conducting sexual assault examinations. With advancements in forensic science, forensic experts and sexual assault nurse examiners need to learn to proper operation of technological advancements and thereby obtain high-quality photos to make any significant contribution in forensic science.

4. Gender climate in Indian oncology: National survey report, European Society for Medical Oncology [ESMO Open, (2020)]

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/esmoopen-2020-000671 

Jyoti Bajpai, Sharada Mailankody, Reena Nair, Shylasree T Surappa, Sudeep Gupta, Kumar Prabhash, Shripad S. Banavali, Hemant Malhotra, Gouri Shankar Bhattacharyya, Smruti Bk, Govind Babu. Department of Medical Oncology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal

This article highlights that gender disparity usually stems from the mindset and staff structure in a job environment. It focuses on gendered understandings of the challenges faced by women oncologists across India. It explores evidence of women being underrepresented in publications as well as leadership roles in the field of oncology. However, so far there is little knowledge about their perceptions of their job environment, the challenges that they faced together with available opportunities for them as compared with their male counterparts. The leading areas of gender gap with scope for improvement were identified in the course of the study. Recommendations were made for a more well-adjusted and balanced workforce like flexible educational programmes for women and better day-care facilities for children. Regarding oncology publications, lead authorship data were collected from two Indian oncology journals. Among the 324 respondents, 61.1% were women. A majority of the respondents were medical oncologists (46.3%), ≤45 years old (69.4%) and from universities and corporate hospital jobs (71.6%). Moreover, in the leading oncology societies in India, the proportions of women to men in the executive committees are quite small – for example 2/19 (10.5%) in the Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology (ISMPO), 2/18 (11.1%) in the Indian Cooperative Oncology Network, 1/14 (11.1%) in the Indian Cooperative Oncology Network, and 4/17 (23.5%) in the Immuno-oncology Society of India (I-OSI), respectively. The national lead societies like the Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology (ISMPO), in association with international committees, need to address such gender gap challenges. Of the 432 members at the ISMPO, approximately 361 (83.5%) are men. This study recommends that we must keep harmonising our approaches and procedures until the potential and acquired goals of gender neutrality correspond with one another.

5. The voice of Indian women on family planning: A qualitative systematic review, Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health ( 2021)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cegh.2021.100906 

Shradha S. Parsekar, Praveen Hoogar, Vijay Shree Dhyani, Uday Narayan Yadav

Centre for Bio Cultural Studies (CBiCS)

This study fits into the goals of global initiatives that focus on the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) like SDG Goal 5 Gender equality and empowerment of women/girl. This is a systematic review of perceptions, expectations and experiences of Indian women on family planning. The methodology incorporated qualitative study conducted among women along with their husbands and mothers-in-law. It is based on an extensive study, between 2000-2019, of mainly five databases along with citations of searches and keywords. It also involved three-stage screening and data extraction. It used the World Health Organization (WHO) framework about social factors of health and wellbeing to thematically analyse the data. The results incorporated 48 qualitative studies out of a total of 857 citations. The study also determined that the causes that led women to use family planning services were several and influenced by multiple socio-demographic factors. Women’s own agency and social identity also were crucial factors determining their decision about opting for family planning methods. It also points out that the key factors that prevented effective use of modern contraceptive methods were anxieties about side effects, awareness levels based on accessibility of valuable information and support, and different socio-cultural beliefs and taboos. It also points out that objectionable attitudes of service providers also played a part in influencing decisions related to lesser use of family planning services. Among low income groups and high risk groups, ineffective contraceptive choice counselling were also reported. When it came to the question of appropriate pregnancy intervals, some women even opted for abortion to deal with an unplanned pregnancy rather than try the alternative of modern contraceptive methods. The findings reveal the urgent need for reviving efforts to provide effective interventions to improve accessibility of family planning information and services to support the rights and wellbeing of women in India.

6. Female Community Health Workers and Health System Navigation in a Conflict Zone: The Case of Afghanistan, Frontiers in Public Health (2021)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.704811 

Ateeb Ahmad Parray, Sambit Dash, Md Imtiaz Khalil Ullah, Zuhrat Mahfuza Inam, Sophia Kaufman Department of Biochemistry, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal

This study highlights that Afghanistan ranked 171st from a list of 188 countries in the Gender Inequality Index of 2011. Only 16% of its women are a part of the labour force. The country has been caught up in violence for decades which has been primarily responsible for the destruction of its social infrastructure including the health sector. Afghanistan has recently deployed community health workers (CHW) who constitute the majority of the health workers in the country. It focuses on exploring the challenges faced by the CHWs in attempting to provide basic healthcare to people living in conflict zones. This study also looks into the several sociocultural and political difficulties that hinder the effective functioning of CHWs. The study also discusses the motivational factors behind Afghani women becoming CHWs, their social identities in the community as well as their status within the health system, the hazardous situations under which they operate, and the challenges they face as working women in a deeply patriarchal society in a conflict zone. The paper points out the limitation that the work of a CHW is often the only career path for women in the health sector.  In a study about CHWs in India, one of the major factors that were seen to directly impact work performance of CHWs absence of job security and lack of any opportunities for career growth. A lack of clear affiliation and ‘employee status and lack of incentives rewarding good performance are factors that were found to be demotivating for CHWs. This study argues that female CHWs in Afghanistan should be provided proper official accreditation for their work besides being encouraged in their career growth as they have the experience to take well-informed decisions about health and well-being of the community. 

7. Tropics, Medicine, and Pandemic: The Bubonic Plague in Lakshmibai Tilak’s Smritichitre, ISLE Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (2020), DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isaa175 

Gayathri Prabhu, Associate Professor, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, Manipal.

‘I thought if Yama had a kingdom anywhere it had to be here. The place was terrifying, the night was terrifying, the surroundings were terrifying and the state of my heart was terrifying.’ The article ‘Tropics, Medicine, and Pandemic: The Bubonic Plague in Lakshmibai Tilak’s Smritichitre’ written by Dr. Gayathri Prabhu  (Associate Professor, Manipal Centre for Humanities MCH, Manipal Academy of Higher Education MAHE, Manipal), began with this this moving quote referring to the harsh realities of the quarantine centre at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra around 1900. It is based on her study of Lakshmibai Tilak’s (1868-1936) autobiography Smritichitre which was published in Marathi in 1934 and then translated into English by Shanta Gokhale. Lakshmibai and her husband, poet Narayan Waman Tilak, were staying at the camp for about eighteen days with their daughter Tara who had the bubonic plague. To quote from this article further to reveal Lakshmibai’s severe anguish and tireless efforts to save her daughter -  ‘I cooked all the flaxseed flour on the stove. I plastered Tara’s entire body from chest to stomach with this poultice. I heated up the castor oil with milk and sugar and somehow got her to swallow it. I placed the stove by her feet. I wrapped her up in a blanket. Then I said to her, “Now you are free to die. I didn’t want to feel I had left anything undone.” In this autobiography, Lakshmibai also wrote about her family woes as her husband converted to Christianity and their Chitpavan Brahmin family had separated them for few years. She expressed her grief at the loss of her two children earlier. She mentioned that she also learned home remedies and indigenous medications and eventually undertook a three-month training course as a nurse. Prabhu’s analysis of Lakshmibai’s utobiography is accompanied by an acknowledgement of the wider historical context/ She refers to the work of David Arnold who argues that the sanitary and medical measures put in place to fight the bubonic plague were influenced by the consolidation of germ theory by the turn of the century together with resistance on the side of Indians which led to a backlash against restrictive quarantine initiatives of the colonial state.

8. Motherhood on display: The child welfare exhibition in colonial Calcutta, 1920, Indian Economic and Social History Review (2021)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464621999308 

Ranjana Saha, Postdoctoral Fellow and History Faculty, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, Manipal.

This paper focuses on an detailed study of the Health and Child Welfare Exhibition held in colonial Calcutta in 1920. There has been no detailed study of this Exhibition till date. In 1920, the vicereines (wives of the viceroys) of India organised child welfare exhibitions motivated by the transnational exhibitory baby health week propaganda initiative to curb high infant mortality rates. The Exhibition as child welfare propaganda comes to life here through an exploration of the colonial archive, the official report of the Exhibition which was published in 1921. Such exhibitions were most often locally organised as well as held nationalist appeal. Saha critically analyses select Exhibition lectures about ‘clean’ versus ‘dirty’ midwifery and ‘scientific’ motherhood given by famous Bengali doctors and other prominent professionals, predominantly men alongside a few women. She studies these lectures in order to determine the intimate connections that were often drawn between the problems of ‘clean’/‘dirty’ midwifery, ritual purity/pollution, improper confinement often in dark lying-in rooms, insanitary childbirth conditions, insufficient lactation and ineffective breastfeeding, and the excessive maternal and infant deaths in Calcutta. The study highlights that many of the Calcutta Exhibition lectures, therefore, centred on the ‘women’s question’ as crucial to colonial ‘civilising missions’, nationalism and community-building, and even preservation of the imperial race in India. The main argument is that these public lectures focused on the very making of the ‘ideal’ Indian nursing mother. In colonial Calcutta, she was often imagined as the traditional butmodern bhadramahila mother figure held responsible for community and national health and wellbeing. The study also highlights the global resonance of famous Frederic Truby King’s ‘mothercraft’ popularised as childcare by the clock. The paper focuses on child welfare exhibitions in colonial India as well as extending extant scholarship on the global infant welfare movement.   

9. Culture, Context and Aging of Older Indians Narratives from India and Beyond, New Delhi: Springer, 2021, xiii + 132pp. ISBN 978-981-16-2790-3 (eBook)

Jagriti Gangopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, Manipal.

Link: 

Jagriti Gangopadhyay’s Culture, Context and Aging of Older Indians is an excellent study engaging with gerontological discourses and ageing experiences in India and Canada. It is based on a comparative narrative framework of interviews of older and younger Indian adults as entry points into individual gendered subjectivities and intergenerational relationships. The core strengths of this book are an in-depth analysis of multigenerational familial relationships together with a transnational comparison of cultural similarities and/or differences in the very experiences of ageing. Gangopadhyay extends extant scholarship in her field by providing context-specific insights about variegated ageing experiences of financially stable older Indians as well as the older Indian diaspora. It is an invaluable contribution to the field of medical sociology as it provides a nuanced understanding of ageing combining macro-and-micro-ageing processes from caregiving conditions to intergenerational ties located in the urban settings of Ahmedabad, Jamshedpur, Delhi and Kolkata (India); and Saskatoon (Canada). The book is divided into seven thematically interconnected chapters beginning with a solid grounding in theory, methodology and sources (Chapter 1); family business and intergenerational families in Ahmedabad (Chapter 2); ageing, gender roles and rules and regulations in an eldercare home in Jamshedpur (Chapter 3), notions of global ageing among older couples in Delhi with adult children living abroad (Chapter 4), loss of a life partner, grief, memories as strengths, self-isolation and sanyasa-like (renunciation of worldly pleasures) life in Kolkata (Chapter 5); ageing, independence and religion in Saskatoon (Chapter 6); and finally, the book closes with a look at main conclusions together with a discussion on secondary sources about global ageing and policy-making (Chapter 7). As one of the aims of the book is to bridge the gap between theory and data in social gerontology, the grounded theory approach was considered to be the most suited approach together with semi-structured questionnaires coupled with an interpretive approach of in-depth, multi-sited and cross-cultural interviews.

10. Does an Increase in the Legal Age of Marriage for Women Guarantee Equality for Women in India? Journal of Indian Law and Society (2021)

Link: jils.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Increase-in-legal-age-of-marriage_equality-for-women.pdf 

Jagriti Gangopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, Manipal.

The Age of Consent Act of 1891 had merely raised the age of consent for sexual intercourse for girls from 10 years to 12 years. However, this Act did not address the legal age of marriage. Agreeing on child marriage as a health problem, the age of consent was subsequently addressed through the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929, also known as the Sarda Act. This particular Act raised the minimum marriageable age for girls at 14 years and boys at 18 years. Later, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 further raised the minimum marriageable age to 18 years for girls and 21 years. In order to fight malnutrition, the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, in his speech on 15th August 2020, announced that the legal age of marriage for women would be increased from 18 to 21. This announcement received mixed reactions from social media. For instance, it has been appreciated by some as this declaration was interpreted as providing equal opportunities to women, with a focus on their health and wellbeing. However, there were also criticisms in social media of the Prime Minister's motives behind this announcement. Would an increase in marital age directly reduce malnutrition levels. Drawing from secondary data sources and media articles, this essay points out the existence of several levels of gender discrimination in society and thereby seeks to delineate  the possible implications of increasing the minimum legal age of marriage for women in India. The study is divided into the five sections. Section I discusses the prevalence of child marriage in India and its impact on the health of women and girls. Section II looks into education and employment for women in India. Section III delves into the situation in the urban context. Section IV seeks answers to the question of whether an increase in marriageable age can lead to gender equality and improved nutritional levels for women in India. Finally, Section V looks at the policy implications. 

11. Integrating Concerns of Gender, Sexuality and Marital Status in the Medical Curriculum, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (2020)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2020.039 

Nikhil Govind, Professor and Head of Institute, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, Manipal; Ketaki Chowkhani, Assistant Professor, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, Manipal.

This is the very first time, that India’s medical curriculum has units and sections on the

relationship between a patient and their doctor. The curriculum has been helping doctors to

think through their ethical dilemmas that might crop up in their clinics and hospitals. And

yet, despite this wonderful move, AETCOM still has a number of issues and doesn’t entirely

fulfil its progressive mandate. This article that we have written, examines how concerns of

gender, sexuality and marital status can be included in AETCOM. Drawing from secondary

sources, the article argues that there is widespread discrimination against single women,

pregnant women, transgender and non-binary women. This is to address the high diversity

that India has. Yet, the article does not examine the question of caste and religion. That is for

not in the scope of this paper. The article suggests certain key texts which might be useful to

add to the AETCOM syllabus so that the curriculum is more inclusive. These texts include:

Lesbian standpoint by Asha Achuthan et al, Bella DePaulo’s foundational text Singled out,

Nivedita Menon’s Seeing like a feminist Judith Butler’s Giving an account of oneself. The

article also includes the gender, sexuality and marital status of the medical staff themselves,

including the doctors, nurses and other staff in a hospital or clinic. This article was co-written

by Dr Nikhil Govind and Dr Ketaki Chowkhani and was published in the 2020 April issue of

the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics as an editorial. It drew from a vast scholarship on

gender, sexuality, singles studies, and brought together for the first time questions of marital

status to the fore in medical education. The article was well-received by the readers.

Project: Investigating the Policy Strategies to Strengthen the Role of Women in Social Media – A Study on Digital Inclusion 

Funding Agency: Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), MHRD, GOI.  Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (IMPRESS). 

Fund : 4Lakh 

Tenure: 1st April 2019 - 31st March,2020 (1 year)

Project Director:  Dr. Ambigai Rajendran.

Project Co- Director: Mr. Sai Sachidananda. 

Link https://icssr.org/investigating-policy-strategies-strengthen-role-women-social-media-%E2%80%93-study-digital-inclusion

Project Summary:

The project, Investigating the Policy Strategies to Strengthen the Role of Women in Social Media – A study on Digital Inclusion, was conducted from 1st April 2019 - 31st March,2020 (1 year). With a keen eye on the gender disparity in social media, the project focuses on gendered digital inclusion and investigation of media policy strategies. It was funded by a grant of four lakh rupees from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India (GOI). Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (IMPRESS). The Project Director was Assistant Professor (Department of Commerce) Dr. Ambigai Rajendran. The project was co-directed by Mr. Sai Sachidananda. Since the inception of “Digital India” programme by Government of India (GoI), the focus was mainly on building governance and services on demand, digital infrastructure, and digital empowerment of citizens. G20 members obliged in reducing gender gap through a variety of programmes, very recently ‘digital inclusion’ got added into it. ‘Digital inclusion must be understood as those who have the skills, ability, and opportunity to productively engage, mobilise, and participate in public life using ICTs’. In 2016, ‘We are Social’ report prepared by a UK based consultancy, posited gender inequality in social media too, as only 24% of females in India is using Facebook. Researchers have propounded means to investigate the strategies to strengthen the role of women in Social Media, as a part of the Digital Inclusion Programme. Researchers have identified a research gap in Indian literature on gender gap existing in the way technology adopted in India. The present study aims to understand the gap to strengthen the role of women in social media, acting as a medium of overall development. 

2. One Day Seminar on “Promoting positive mental health amongst women – Prospects and Challenges with special reference to women of coastal district Udupi” (11th January 2020), Venue: Sir M V Seminar Hall, MIT, MAHE, Manipal

The National Commission for Women (NCW) was set up as statutory body to review the constitutional and legal safeguards for women, recommend remedial legislative measures, facilitate redressal of grievances, and advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women. This one-day seminar was sponsored by the NCW. The One Day Seminar ‘Promoting positive mental health amongst women – Prospects and Challenges with special reference to women of coastal district Udupi’ was organised by the Department of Commerce, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, MAHE, Manipal on 11th January 2020. This seminar basically aimed at educating the women of Udupi district by giving special focus particularly to women in the rural sector. The main objectives of the Seminar were to to create a platform to discuss matters related to women's mental health and to modify societal behaviour towards issues related to mental health. It also focuses on challenges towards implementing positive mental health in rural part of Udupi District. Around 160 participants participated in the seminar from different colleges and cooperative societies across the three taluks of Udupi District. Ten resource persons from different streams worked together with the participants on the topic of the various mental problems faced by women.