Mom is my driving force! I hope that some day I shall get the strength to write a book about her for my son to learn what greatness truly means....

Empowering women in STEM: the case of Asha Mittal and CBSE

Ms. Asha Mittal (born 1948) retired as an Associate Professor of Mathematics from the Kirori Mal College (KMC), Delhi University (DU) in 2013. In addition to teaching and related academic activities during her tenure of 43+ years as a regular faculty member of KMC, she was also entrusted with several additional responsibilities, most notably serving as the Head of the Department of Mathematics at KMC (six years), Program Officer of NSS at KMC (twelve years), Faculty in-charge of college admissions (three years), Proctor (four years) & Superintendent of Examinations at KMC (four years). She has written three books in Mathematics (one published by Ratna Sagar (P) Ltd., Delhi in 1996 and two published by Educo International Inc.- the latter two, used for continuing education programs in the US of A, were printed for five and six editions till 2005 and 2007 respectively).

Always encouraged by her father for excelling academically, Asha grew up with an elder brother and three younger sisters. She completed her schooling as a topper (first position) from Hr. Sec. School, Laxmi Bai Nagar, New Delhi, a hindi-medium government school in 1964. She then overcame the barrier of her hindi-medium school education to finish her B.A. (Hons.) Mathematics from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) as a topper (first position LSR, third position DU) in 1967. She was honoured with the Ravi Kanta Devi Prize for the Best Woman candidate in all B.A. (Hons.), DU. Subsequently she earned her M.A. (Hons.) Mathematics again as a topper (first position LSR, third position DU) in 1969. These academic achievements were already much ahead of their times, especially considering that even enrolment of women in "Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics" (STEM) was an extreme rarity in those times.

As one of the top graduates in Mathematics in DU, it was quite straightforward for Asha to get inducted into academia purely based on her merit. She started her academic career as an Assistant Lecturer of Mathematics in LSR in 1969 and then as a Lecturer in KMC from 1970 onwards (Reader 1986; Associate Professor 2006). Boldly conducting her undergraduate classes (having predominantly male students), she rapidly earned the respect and affection of her students and colleagues through the "mathematical clarity" with which she was able to communicate, even for topics delving into abstract mathematics. Over the years, she stamped her authority in teaching courses on Calculus, Coordinate Geometry of two & three dimensions, Algebra, Real Analysis, Numerical Analysis and Discrete Mathematics.

In 1973, she was married, and became a mother of two boys (elder born in 1974 and younger born in 1978). Despite her rich educational background and ahead-of-the-time professional standing, Asha had to endure a very hostile environment during her married years - the situation was reflective of, and often worse than the general oppression women had to face in society at the time. In 1980, after ~seven years of severe torture (primarily tolerated by her due to social pressures), she decided to regain her dignity by separating from her spouse. In this, a key driving force was her determination to ensure that her two boys did not grow up into hostile/uncultured male chauvinists. Along with rebuilding her shattered dignity, sole custody of her two children was the only other benefit she wanted out of the legal separation. Serving as a single parent and sole-legal-guardian of her two children took precedence in her life and she had to decline numerous professional opportunities (including those for further studies towards a PhD) despite her highly acknowledged academic excellence.

In 1990, her elder son had to appear for his class X examinations conducted nationally by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The forms required him to fill "Father's name", in which he promptly filled "Asha Mittal" after manually cutting "Father" and writing "Mother" by hand. The Principal of his school at the time called him to enquire the reason - to which the son replied "She's my mother and as per law my sole guardian! As per one of the school prayers she embodies "twamev mata cha pita twamev (you are my mother and you are my father)". Impressed by the response of his pupil, the Principal let the form pass through to CBSE as is. The elder son successfully completed the examination and was awarded a pass certificate bearing "Shri Asha Mittal" as his Father's name. In 1992, he appeared for class XII examinations conducted by CBSE. The same scenario repeated as in 1990 and he was awarded a pass certificate bearing "Shri Asha Mittal" as his Father's name. In 1992, he also qualified the national combined entrance examination for engineering education (the current avatar is JEE Mains) and appeared for merit-based-institution-cum-course-allotment (called counselling) in Lucknow. At that time, the officials flagged the issue of "Shri Asha Mittal" being the Father's name in CBSE certificates. The son was given his merit-based admission; however the mother-son duo was advised to "get it corrected". This was a somewhat humiliating experience for Asha. Thus, she approached CBSE, through multiple visits and eventual submission of a written application, to correct the pass certificates that mandatorily required and printed "Father's name" while ignoring the legal directive of her being the sole guardian. Eventually, on 14th January 1994, CBSE re-issued her elder son's class X and XII pass certificates that explicitly stated "Son of Ms. Asha Mittal" instead of the name of one or both parents. It appeared that a single mother had finally gotten her right to be listed as a parent in her child's educational records. However, the problems did not end there.

Her younger son, who was now approaching his turn of CBSE examinations, had to go through a similar experience. In fact, her younger son was allowed fill his Mother's name in CBSE forms only after Asha had given a written undertaking to his school Principal that she would take full responsibility for any complications arising out of her name appearing in her own son's CBSE forms. Unlike the Principal of her elder son's school in 1990, the Principal of her younger son's school was offended by the child manually replacing "Fa" by "Mo" in the form to fill in correct information. This time, she wrote to every possible higher authority (including the then MHRD secretary) strongly objecting to the practice of mandatory requirement of filling Father's name in the CBSE forms.

This "story of names", which started in 1990, and resulted in changing of Pass Certificates issued by CBSE stating "Son/Daughter of ...." from 1994 onwards, finally came to an end in 1996 when CBSE modified all of its forms by (a) including Mother's name, (b) including "Legal Guardian" as an alternative to "Mother" and/or "Father", and, (c) removing the mandatory requirement of filling only Father's name. By this time Asha Mittal and her children did not require any more CBSE forms to be filled by them. However, this did pave the way for numerous single parents and/or legal guardians to proudly celebrate their parenthood without compromising their dignity. Most importantly, it gave the mother of a child the right to have her name displayed as a parent in her own child's educational journey in India.