<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Department of Science & Technology has a unique programme 'Vigyan Jyoti' for meritorious girls with the aim to address the underrepresentation of women in different fields of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the country.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Vigyan Jyoti envisaged hand-holding and interventions right from the school level i.e., Class IX and which will continue till the PhD level to encourage girls to pursue a career in underrepresented areas of STEM.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">IIT Bombay recently organized such a week-long programme for 160 girls from rural parts of Maharashtra, Bihar and Odisha. During this girls interacted with women inspirers, tried various experiments on Break-Make-Program kits developed by IIT Bombay. They also experienced Virtual Reality on VR sets.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">All the kits used by girls are provided to the parent school so that the girls can create a local impact. To ensure long term success of this programme, IIT Bombay students will mentor and follow up with these girls virtually. Every quarter an online meet will be conducted with the students, teachers and parents. </span></p>