IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2008 - 54

A Downside
But this kind of forward-thinking does
not come without a downside. India's
roots lie in the importance of family
values-an aspect that Marimuthu
calls the country's "cultural
strength"-and encouraging women
to enter professions must be tempered with instilling a sense of life
balance. Whereas children used to be
raised in highly populated villages
among their peers and relatives, having two working parents now often
means moving the family to a large
city. With elders remaining in their
native villages, the children are
denied the immersion in their heritage and family traditions that most
Indians consider necessary for a
proper upbringing. The potential
decline of children's moral values, by
conventional standards, could lead to
what Marimuthu terms "a lack of direction and enthusiasm" in their lives.
While these factors certainly don't spell
disaster for India's youth, they do require a

bit of reflection, Marimuthu believes.
Unmotivated children can become disinterested working professionals; and while
the thriving information technology (IT)
industry in India assures that young people will continue to train technically, some
of the core basic engineering training is
being pushed to the side or forgotten
about altogether. According to
Marimuthu, the outlook may be grim.
"More private schools and engineering col-

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

leges are booming, which turns out more
engineers, but the employable quality of
the engineers has become a point of con-

continues to study "Vedic mathematics,"
exploring the connection between technology and the laws of the ancient Vedas,

Ramalatha
Marimutha has
helped boost
student
involvement with
the IEEE in India,
including this
visit to St.
Xavier's Catholic
College of
Engineering.

cern." With the impression that both
social values taught in the home and ethical values taught in school are deteriorating, the need to reconcile technological
advancement with cultural traditions is
more apparent than ever.

the sacred texts of Hinduism.
But throughout her professional
advancement, Marimuthu has never
shirked her own familial responsibilities.
Married since 1988 to a government
employee who travels extensively for
business and comes home only
once every month or so, she
has run a single-parent home
for the past 18 years. In her
own family, Marimuthu came
face to face with dyslexia and
understands the plight of
Student Members of
dyslexic children all over the
Madras WIE are
world. "It is the lack of awarewelcomed to St.
Xavier's Catholic
ness among the parents,
College of
teachers, and children which
Engineering.
makes it more pathetic," she
says. Knowing of her experience, her colleagues sometimes come to her to share
their difficulties with their
own children. This has triggered her interest in researching these issues further. "I am interested
Just the Person
in finding therapies for dyslexia and other
Marimuthu may be just the person to
disorders," she says, "I'm currently workshow young students how to achieve this
ing on a project towards this goal with a
balance. In addition to her undergradugroup called Brahmam." (See "Amperes"
ate engineering degree, she has received
in this issue.)
a master's degree in electronics and conThough Marimuthu acknowledges
trol, a master's degree in research in
that it hasn't always been easy-and it
VLSI, and a postgraduate diploma in syshas definitely been busy-she asserts
tems analysis and data processing. She
that the cost of facing some hardship was
has also written six technical books, pubdefinitely worth it. "It may be that I have
lished a number of research papers, and

SUMMER 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2008