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PUTA elections: Female candidates outnumber male counterparts
Six female candidates – four from one group and two from the other – are contesting the election this year, which is higher than the past few years
Bucking the recent trend, female faculty members contesting for the top five posts of the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) elections this year have outnumbered the male candidates.
Six female candidates – four from one group and two from the other – are contesting the election this year, which is higher than the past few years.
From the Supinder-Naura team, Supinder Kaur and Suman Sumi are contesting for the posts of president and vice-president. While Sarvnarinder Kaur is contesting for the post of joint secretary from the team, Vijayta Chadha is eying the post of treasurer.
From the rival Naresh-Neeraj team, Vandana Arora and Avneet Saini are contesting for the posts of vice-president and joint secretary respectively.
Only three female candidates were in fray for the top PUTA posts from two rival groups each in 2020 and 2021. Recent years have, however, seen a rise in the number of female teachers contesting the PUTA elections — a phenomenon that many believe is due to the increase in the number of female faculty at the varsity.
There are around 630 regular teachers in PU, of which, according to top university officials, nearly 55% are female teachers.
Speaking of the same, PU senator and former PUTA president Rajat Sandhir, said, “We see more women candidates in fray for PUTA election this year. It is a true reflection of the paradigm shift in gender of teaching faculty in the last few years. A decade earlier, more men were in the faculty than females.”
Outgoing PUTA president Mritunjay Kumar, whose group has fielded four female candidates for the top posts this year, said, “Female representation was always there in our team because we have a good number of female faculty members. All female candidates who are in fray this year have been working in our team for the past many years.”
After Jaspal Kaur Kang, who was elected president of PUTA in 2010, it was only in 2016 that a female teacher — Promila Pathak became the president of the teachers’ body. Rajesh Gill won the race for president in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
