Meagre 15% women work in DRDO, KTR calls for breaking stereotypes

HYDERABAD: A meagre 15% of the workforce at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are women.

Speaking to media persons at the Research Centre of

Imarat

(RCI) on Wednesday, Tessy Thomas, director of

advanced systems laboratory

in DRDO, Hyderabad, said there was a need for more women to come forward and become scientists. "Although the representation of women has increased from 3% a few decades ago to 15% today, it is still very low. Just about 25% of the top level

scientists

in DRDO are women," she said.

Subhash Bhamre, Raksha Rajya Mantri, who was present as the chief guest, said, "There is still a strong need to orient more and more women towards science and technology."

Nearly 300 women from all parts of the country joined the women's day celebrations at the RCI. K Taraka Rama Rao, state IT minister, who attended the event as the guest of honour, asked people to "break stereotypes and stop expecting women to multi-task. India is a country where women are worshipped. But women don't want to be worshipped but be treated equally. Instead of talking of sacrifices that women make, everyone should ensure sacrifices made by them are reduced".