The Union Government initiated 'Cyber Shikshaa', a free programme providing training of cyber security to women engineers has failed to take-off at Gujarat. The programme that aims at providing skill training to women engineers coming from financially weaker backgrounds was launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently and eight centres across the country were announced to provide such training, of which two are from Gujarat.
While Gujarat received responses from over 100 applicants, nearly 45 were short-listed however only 6 came ahead to join the programme. The centres to provide training from Gujarat include Gujarat Forensic Sciences University (GFSU) and Gujarat Technological University (GTU)
As per batch requisite, the centre can only start the batch if more than 10 participants join the programme. "Unfortunately, only 6 girls came to join the programme here. We had received registrations from 106 applicants. GTU referred their 54 registrations to us as they did not have enough resources then", said CD Jadeja, Registrar, GFSU.
When DNA contacted professor Deepak Upadyaya of GTU, he said, "Our process is in pipeline and hence we will take some time to commence the batch."
As part of this program, C-Dac, ministry's R&D institution for the design, development and deployment of electronic and ICT technologies, would be conducting training programs exclusively for women and also making them industry ready by imparting the requisite technical skills in the domain of cyber security. The program shall also entail placement assistance for the deserving candidates with the potential recruiters looking to hire for various job roles in cyber security.
The eligibility criteria includes women from age 21-26 with family income less than 7 lakhs per annum. It is a four month programme and a total of 500 women will be imparted training.
A professor of cyber security requesting anonymity said, "I do not think that problem is with awareness or else registration numbers would not have been that high. Perhaps the reason could be the duration of the programme which many would find quite less to get trained in a complex area."