By Jayanti Dutta

In the national imagination, science education is often associated with gleaming laboratories, cutting-edge research and elite institutions where ideas flourish in an atmosphere of intellectual abundance. Yet, far removed from these islands of privilege, there exists another, far larger landscape of science education, unfolding in modest classrooms, under-resourced laboratories and socially complex terrains. It is here, in the backwaters of India’s educational geography, that a remarkable cohort of women quietly sustain the promise of STEM.

These women in small-town and rural colleges are not merely disseminators of knowledge, they are role models, mentors, career counselors, mental-health saviours and even family dispute arbiters and they are stoically mentoring new generations into science education with not much help from the other stakeholders.

Dr Shallu Dogra, teaches Chemistry in Lal Bahadur Shastri Govt Degree college, Hatkoti, Himachal Pradesh, a place hundred kilometres away from Shimla, located deep into the apple-growing belt, in a valley on the bank of the river Pabbar. With well qualified teachers and affiliation with the state university, the college is not a non-descript institute, however, its remote location and barely adequate government funds, make it difficult to create a vibrant ecosystem of rigorous science teaching and research. It is difficult to persuade scientists and other resource persons to visit the college for extra-mural lectures or take students on trips to national labs for experiential learning. However, these are no deterrents for Dr Dogra who had her research training in Panjab University, Chandigarh, Her vibrant experience of academic ambience and intellectual rigour has made her determined to design similar experiences for her students too in this college.

Through creativity and resourcefulness, she has converted her chemistry lab into training site for students to learn to prepare apple cider and vinegar, conducted workshops in responsible eating through literacy on packaged food labels, and made students participate in surveys on menstrual hygiene practices in a community where taboos are deep rooted, she says. Her strategy to compensate for the resource deprivation is high quality teaching. She hardly teaches from textbooks, emphasising on the practicality and simplicity of scientific concepts. ‘It is important to think and I provoke them a lot’, she says.

Many of these teachers are themselves first-generation learners, daughters of constrained households, survivors of systemic inequities, and often, the first women in their families to pursue higher education in science. Their journeys into STEM are rarely linear. They are marked by resilience rather than access and determination rather than privilege. Dr Ruchika Sharma, teaching Botany in Govt PG College, Rajouri is one such personality. Rajouri is located at a small beautiful plateau in village Kheora, three and half kilometers from  Rajouri town in the backdrop of snow caped Pir-Panjal mountains in the North and Darhal Tawi flowing in the west. Ruchika always wanted to study science because the questions 'Why' and 'how' always intrigued her and science was surely the answer.

Challenges were also there as she came from a remote village, Bajabain, about 30 kilometres from LOC in Rajouri district of Jammu. Lack of facilities was a real issue, however,  parents motivated her and supported to the best of their capacity to provide a good education to Ruchika. For her post-graduate and PhD research she joined HNB, Garhwal University in Uttarakhand, undertaking a journey of 18 hours one way, 850 kms away from home, ‘not at all an easy journey but sure worth it’. For her colleagues, Dr. Ayushi Thakur, teaching Geology and Dr. Suhasani, teaching Veterinary Technology and Zoology, both coming from urban backgrounds, getting their first posting at a rural college with scarce facilities was a challenge which they have surmounted with resillience. All the three young teachers acknowledge that they love to teach science to the girl students bogged down by retrogressive societal norms but are hard working and aspirational.

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Ratia in Haryana is the town where Dr Richa Rani, teaches physics in Khalsa Tri-shatabdi Govt College, to a  cohort of students coming from a rural-agrarian community with a strong presence of historically marginalized groups and rigid caste structures. Ratia represents a typical semi-rural North Indian higher education ecosystem, young, diverse, socially stratified, moderately literate and deeply shaped by local socio-cultural realities and limited access to higher education, especially for women. Having done her PhD from Kurukshetra University, Kurulshetra, and continuous support from a progressive family Dr Richa Rani has now made peace with the fact that sans, access to research journals, lab equipment or any basic support for research facilties, physics research is not on her plate anymore. However, teaching in Ratia needs much more than subject expertise.

Girl students are not allowed to stay in college hostels, they must travel back to their homes by evening, thus losing precious time that they could have spent studying in the hostel. Class attendance is low as students coming from agricultural background need to attend to demands of their fields and farms, poor students are undertaking part-time jobs, girl students get married off mid-education and the teacher needs to continuously nudge, coax and force students to at least attend classes. Education is not a priority, here, realities of life take precedence.

Dr Kriti teaches Botany in DAV college, Bathinda, Punjab, not a remote or rural area geographically. It is a well-connected city with all trappings of a modern urban space but its semi-urban agrarian society with high social diversity, moderate literacy and strong rural influence, shaping a distinct profile of higher education learners. There is gender imbalance in sex ratio and economic constraints still prevail in a population with 25% scheduled caste communities. Gender, caste and religion shape social confidence and participation. Historically, education has not been a mobility pathway in the region migration to greener pastures in Canada and Australia is. 

All these factors make science teaching in Bathinda quite challenging. ‘It is quite a task to teach science to these students, they don’t know the basic fundamentals and come to the college without the threshold knowledge and competency required for an undergraduate degree. Their motivation is low. With conservative societal constraints how can they learn problem solving, clear thinking, decision making, Dr Kriti asks. Novel ways need to be devised. She has started a interdisciplinary course in Nursery and Gardening, teaching how to grow dragon-fruits and strawberry- which has become a hit among students.  ‘Now that PR in Canada and Australia has closed, we are getting more students, and maybe, some better ones too’, she hopes.

The pattern emerging from these stories from four states of North India emerge clearly. These women stand at the front of classrooms in colleges located in geographically remote and socially underserved regions. Their work environments are far removed from the idealized spaces of science learning. Laboratories may lack basic equipment, libraries may be out-dated and administrative support often minimal, yet, they persist, they don’t give up.

Their relationship with their work is complex. There is pride, deep and genuine, in being a science teacher. There is also frustration. They hold doctoral degrees, yet find themselves cut off from research ecosystems. Over time, this stagnation can erode academic enthusiasm. And yet, their commitment to teaching remains remarkably intact. The brighter side of this narrative lies in the relationships these teachers build with their students. For many young women, a female STEM teacher is more than an instructor, she is a possibility. She embodies an alternative life trajectory, one where education leads to autonomy, where thinking is encouraged, and where questioning is not punished.

Do these teachers succeed in instilling curiosity, scientific temper and a research mind-set? The answer is not uniform, but it is hopeful. Not every student is transformed. Not every classroom becomes a site of intellectual awakening. But enough do. Women teaching STEM in the backwaters is a story of quiet endurance and incremental change which is neither dramatic nor headline-grabbing but it is foundational. In classrooms that may never be photographed, in colleges that rarely make it to rankings, these women are shaping scientific temper, one student at a time. And in doing so, they are expanding the boundaries of what science education in India can mean.

This story was originally published by Rukhmabai Initiatives.

This article was originally published in 101 Reporters under Creative Common license. Read the original article.

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