In the national imagination, science education is often associated with gleaming laboratories, cutting-edge research, and elite institutions where ideas thrive in an atmosphere of intellectual abundance. But far from these islands of privilege, there is another, far larger landscape of science education that unfolds in humble classrooms, underfunded laboratories, and socially complex areas. Here, in the far corners of India’s educational geography, a remarkable cohort of women are quietly upholding the promise of STEM fields.
These women at small-town and rural colleges are not just knowledge spreaders; They are role models, mentors, career advisors, mental health saviors and even mediators in family disputes, and they stoically accompany new generations science lessons with little help from others involved.
Teaching despite limitations
Dr. Shallu Dogra teaches chemistry at Lal Bahadur Shastri Govt Degree College in Hatkoti, Himachal Pradesh, a place a hundred kilometers from Shimla, deep in the apple-growing belt, in a valley on the banks of the Pabbar river. With well-qualified teachers and a connection to the state university, the college is not an inconspicuous institution. However, its remote location and limited government funding make it difficult to create a vibrant ecosystem for sophisticated science teaching and research. It is difficult to persuade scientists and other professionals to visit college to give lectures or take students on trips to national laboratories for experimental learning.
For Dr. However, there is no deterrence for Dogra, who completed her research training at Panjab University in Chandigarh.
Her vivid experience with academic ambience and intellectual rigor has motivated her to create similar experiences for her students at this university. Through creativity and ingenuity, she has transformed her chemistry lab into a training site where students can learn to make apple cider and vinegar, conducted workshops on responsible eating through literacy of packaged food labels, and led students to participate in surveys about menstrual hygiene practices in a community where taboos are deeply rooted, she says. Their strategy to compensate for the scarcity of resources is high-quality teaching.
She rarely teaches from textbooks and emphasizes the practicality and simplicity of scientific concepts. “It’s important to think, and I often provoke it,” she said.
Teaching and practicing resilience
Many of these teachers are themselves first-generation learners, daughters of struggling families, survivors of systemic inequalities, and often the first women in their families to pursue higher education in science. Your path into STEM subjects is rarely linear. They are characterized by resilience rather than access, and by determination rather than privilege.
Dr. Ruchika Sharma, who teaches botany at Govt PG College, Rajouri, is one such personality. Rajouri is located on a small, beautiful plateau in Kheora village, three and a half kilometers from Rajouri town, with the backdrop of the snow-capped Pir Panjal mountains to the north and the Darhal Tawi flowing to the west.
Dr. Sharma always wanted to study science because the questions “why” and “how” always fascinated her and science was certainly the answer. There were also challenges as she hailed from a remote village, Bajabain, about 30 kilometers from the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu. The lack of facilities was a real problem; However, her parents motivated and supported her to the best of their ability to ensure that Ruchika got a good education.
For her postgraduate and doctoral work, she went to HNB, Garhwal University in Uttarakhand and took an 18-hour one-way journey, 850 km from home, “not an easy journey at all, but definitely worth it.”
Dr. Suhasani is doing internships in her lab at Govt PG College, Rajouri (Photo Source: Jayanti Dutta, 101Reporters)
For her colleagues, Dr. Ayushi Thakur, lecturer in geology, and Dr. For Suhasani, a lecturer in Veterinary Technology and Zoology, both of whom come from an urban background, getting her first job at a rural college with scarce facilities was a challenge** that she overcame with resilience.
All three young teachers admit they love teaching science to girls who are trapped in regressive societal norms but are hard-working and ambitious.
An introduction to social reality
Ratia in Haryana is the city where Dr. Richa Rani taught physics at 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 higher education ecosystem of North India: young, diverse, socially stratified, moderately educated and strongly influenced by local socio-cultural realities and limited access to higher education, especially for women.
After completing her PhD thesis at Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra and with the continuous support of a progressive family, Dr. Rani has now come to terms with the fact that physics research is no longer on her agenda without access to research journals, laboratory equipment or basic support for research institutions.
However, teaching Ratia requires much more than just specialist knowledge. Female students are not allowed to stay overnight in dormitories and have to travel home until the evening, losing valuable time that they could have spent studying in the dormitory. Class attendance is low because students with agricultural backgrounds have to tend to the demands of their fields and farms and poor students take part-time jobs while female students are married off mid-course. The teacher has to constantly nudge, persuade and force the students to at least participate in class. Education is not a priority here; The reality of life takes precedence.
Access versus barriers
Dr. Kriti teaches botany at DAV College in Bathinda, Punjab, not in a remote or rural area. It is a well-connected city with all the hallmarks of a modern urban area, but its semi-urban agrarian society with high social diversity, moderate literacy and strong rural influence shapes a distinct graduate profile.
There is a gender imbalance in sex ratios and economic constraints still prevail in a population that is 25% Scheduled Castes. Gender, caste and religion shape social trust and participation. Historically, education has not been a path to mobility in the region. Migration to greener pastures in Canada and Australia is.
Dr. Kriti in her classroom (Photo source: Jayanti Dutta, 101Reporters)
All these factors make teaching science in Bathinda very challenging. “It is quite a task to teach these students science. They do not know the basic fundamentals and come to college without the minimum knowledge and skills required for a bachelor’s degree. Their motivation is low. How can they learn problem solving, clear thinking and decision making in the face of conservative societal constraints**?” Dr. Kriti asks.
New ways have to be found. She has started an interdisciplinary course in nursery and gardening, teaching how to grow dragon fruit and strawberries, which are very popular with students. “After the outreach in Canada and Australia is completed, we will get more students and maybe some better ones,” she hoped.
Strive for change
The pattern in these stories from four states of northern India is clear. These women are at the forefront of college classrooms in geographically remote and socially underserved regions. Their work environments are far removed from the idealized spaces of scientific learning. Laboratories may lack basic equipment, libraries may be outdated, and administrative support is often minimal, but they persist; they don’t give up.
Her relationship to her work is complex. There is a deep and real pride in being a science teacher. There is also frustration. You have a PhD but are cut off from the research ecosystem. Over time, this stagnation can erode academic enthusiasm. And yet her 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 STEM teacher is more than just an instructor; it is a possibility. It embodies an alternative way of life in which education leads to autonomy, thinking is encouraged and questioning is not punished.
Do these teachers succeed in arousing curiosity, a scientific temperament and an investigative mindset? The answer is not uniform, but it gives hope. Not every student changes. Not every classroom becomes a place of intellectual awakening. But do enough.
Women teaching STEM in the backwaters is a story of quiet perseverance and incremental change that is neither dramatic nor headline-grabbing, but fundamental. In classrooms that may never be photographed, in colleges that rarely make the rankings, these women are shaping the academic mood, one student at a time. And in doing so, they are pushing the boundaries of what science education can mean in India.
This story was originally published by Rukhmabai Initiatives, an initiative of 101Reporters.
101Reporters is a pan-India network of grassroots reporters that unearths unheard stories from the hinterland.
