Looking back, M.S. Shaila is surprised at her own daring. She was the typical studious, south Indian girl of the 1960s who always lived by the rulebook. Shaila was declared a rebel when she decided to study to be a scientist. The final blow came when she said that she wanted to pursue her profession after marriage. “This was unacceptable in the marriage market. My parents were unable to find a match for me,” says the 60-year-old professor at the department of microbiology and cell biology at Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Those days, not too many women chose molecular virology over marriage. But things do not seem to have changed too much now. Consider the percentage of women scientists employed at India’s top scientific institutions today ? 14 per cent at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and 20 per cent at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Again, of the total faculty at Bangalore’s IISc, only 14.7 per cent are women. All the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) put together employ less than 10 per cent women faculty. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), the Department of Ocean Development (DOD) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have no women technical staff.

Yet, surveys show that 39 per cent of science students in the country are women. In universities of Goa, Kerala, Punjab and Pondicherry, women comprise 50 per cent of science students.

So where do these women go? Scientists believe that they get married, find it difficult to balance family life with an intellectually demanding science career and, therefore, pull out. “The majority opt for low-on-challenge jobs like teaching science in schools and undergraduate colleges,” says Rohini M. Godbole, physicist at the Centre for High Energy Physics, IISc.

Godbole recalls her tenure as a post doctoral fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. “A senior colleague told me that my best bet was to get a teaching job in a women’s college in a non-urban area,” she says

But now, for the first time, two premier scientific institutions are making plans to bring women back into science. The Bangalore-based Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) has set up a committee that will formulate policies to encourage women to take up a career in science. The plan of action includes a ‘Role Model Programme’, under which a book on biographical sketches of successful women scientists will be published.

Lectures in women’s colleges are also planned. “All these activities will roll out over the next few months,” says Godbole, chairperson of the IAS Committee.

Two months ago, the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) organised a meeting of diverse academic institutions and science funding agencies to discuss ways of bringing women into science careers. A long list of recommendations was drawn up at the conference, including providing flexi-hours, cr?ches, campus housing, age relaxation in recruitment and two mid-career breaks for women.

Last year, the INSA brought out a report titled, Science Career for Indian Women ? an examination of Indian women’s access to and retention in scientific careers. The report notes that, “Attrition after higher education is a national waste and an impoverishment of Indian science.”

Says Veena Poonacha, head of the Research Centre for Women’s Studies (RCWS), SNDT University, Mumbai, which conducted part of the study, “Traditional mindsets internalised over generations prevent women from opting for a career in science. It is perceived as a male domain.”

A career in science is not a cushy, nine-to-five job. “It demands round-the-clock mental involvement. The slightest slackness means the end of a career,” says Saraswathi Vishweshwara, professor at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc. As a married, mother-of-two scientist, Vishweshwara remembers she had to cook dinner and put the children to bed before beginning work even on urgent research papers.

With women in a minority, gender discrimination is also rampant in science careers. For instance, out of the 502 awards given by INSA, only 14 have gone to women. And only 3.2 per cent elected fellows at INSA are women.

Godbole feels women need a big dose of luck and a supportive family to pursue a successful career in science. She recalls her tenure as a post doctoral fellow in the theoretical physics group at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. “A senior colleague told me that my best bet was to get a teaching job in a women’s undergraduate college in a non-urban area.”

The INSA study revealed that the majority of women students felt they were discriminated against during field work and found it difficult to obtain research positions. “Girl students are regularly denied research associateship on the pretext that they will marry and leave,” says Poonacha.

Male scientists have a slightly different take on the issue, though. “Discrimination against women is as much a cultural problem of our society as it is a problem in the science world,” says Prof. V Nanjundiah, Department of Molecular Reproduction Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science.

But it is not just a question of being discriminated against. Women in science also face the problem of sexual harassment, says the INSA report. “Nobody talks about it. Teachers tell students to cope by ignoring the issue,” says Poonacha.

But despite the difficulties, Godbole sees a future for women in science. After all, women now occupy nearly half the science seats in colleges. “It shouldn’t be long before they start bagging the jobs as well,” she says.