Girls in ICT: A connected tomorrow that leaves no one behind

From the visionary 'Rocket Women' scientists who led India's historic Moon landing to the classrooms training the next generation of coders and cybersecurity experts, India has made great strides in raising representation of girls and women in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). India produces some of the world's highest numbers of women graduates in STEM disciplines. However, their representation in the workplace continues to be low - underscoring the several obstacles in the path to achieving gender parity.

“There is no better place than India, with its greatest generation of young minds, to bring together the power of gender equality and the rapidly changing world of technology,” United Nations Resident Coordinator in India Shombi Sharp said at the launch of the Girls in ICT initiative in New Delhi.

The International Telecommunication Union’s flagship Girls in ICT programme is being held in India for the first time since its inception in 2011. With the support of the government, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-Dot) and UN agencies, ITU will hold a series of training sessions across the country over the next few weeks to give students and young women hands-on experience in coding, cybersecurity and other emerging technologies.

“The need for strong female role models is more relevant than ever,” UNFPA India Representative Andrea M Wojnar said, lauding the United Nations specialized agency for digital technology’s efforts to close the gender gap in STEM fields.

The ‘Rocket Women’ of India are a shining example of what can be achieved when women lead and innovate, Mr Sharp said, urging the students in attendance to draw inspiration from the women scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation who powered the Chandrayaan-3 mission to make history when India became the first country to land a spacecraft on the south pole of the moon in 2023.

During a panel discussion on technology, students from schools across the National Capital Region had the chance to interact with representatives from several United Nations agencies working in India including United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime South Asia Regional Representative Marco Teixeira and UN Women Deputy Country Representative Kanta Singh.

Dr. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, and Vipin Kumar, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Education, highlighted government initiatives like the Atal Tinkering Lab programme to foster innovation in the fields of technology, while Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay, CEO of C-DOT, Kishore Babu GSC Yerraballa from ITU, and Julian Gorman from GSMA Asia Pacific underlined the importance of collaboration to ensure that the future of technology is both inclusive and sustainable.