NEW DELHI: When the Mars Orbiter Mission probe, Mangalyaan, was launched from Sriharikota in November 2013, Isro scientists spent 24 hours glued to screens monitoring its 298-day transit until it was put into orbit in September 2014. There was no scope for error. In this difficult state of affairs girls scientists refused to depart the night time shifts to the boys and stepped in to share the burden equally, mentioned Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, generally known as India’s ‘rocket woman’, sending out a powerful message on International Women’s Day on the necessity to create equal workspaces and and an equal world.
Karidhal, together with acid assault survivor Pragya Prasun Singh who has made helping individuals with burn accidents her life’s mission via her Atijeevan Foundation and former badminton world no.1 Saina Nehwal amongst others, shared their journey at a programme on Thursday to encourage girls to “speak up”, face the challenges, and break their silence towards injustice, violence and abuse. They highlighted the necessary roles dad and mom, significantly moms have performed in shaping their lives.
The occasion organised by National Commission for Women (NCW) was aptly named ‘Tu Bol’ (You Speak). Nehwal delivered a robust message, shedding gentle on the psychological pressures endured by sportspersons and the way it was her mom, a housewife, who put her on the street to be a sportsperson. “As a child she invested in my health, fitness and training. She never allowed me to give up and I followed her eventually realising that I was made for the game,” she added and emphasised on the necessity for focussing on each bodily and psychological well being.
Pragya credited not simply her dad and mom however her husband for giving her power to rebuild her life and switch it right into a mission. “At the age of 23 while travelling in the train a man threw acid at me just because he was upset that I had married someone else,” she shared as she elaborated on the extreme ache and almost 13 surgical procedures she underwent thereafter for her burn accidents. “Seeing so many burn victims lose their battle I decided if I had survived I have to thrive and help other burn victims,” she mentioned and highlighted that her Foundation assists survivors with therapy linkages to hospitals and even rehabilitation.
As Karidhal took the stage and shared a fascinating presentation on India’s house journey, she shared that from childhood she was drawn to house and would acquire newspaper cuttings on the topic and draw inspiration. Karidhal went on to be a mission director of Chandrayaan 2 and deputy operations director of Mangalyaan, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). She was additionally concerned in Chandrayaan 3.
While sharing the challenges throughout numerous missions, Karidhal highlighted that “during the monitoring of the 10 month journey of the satellite to Mars between 2013 to 2014, women scientists chose to do night duties like men. When we are equal contributors then we have to shoulder responsibilities equally,” she added. Karidhal additionally highlighted that ladies scientists performed a serious position in figuring out the touchdown web site for Vikram lander on the south pole of the moon. India grew to become the primary nation to efficiently land a craft on the Moon’s south pole on August 23.