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Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the nationally mandated lockdown has resulted in facility closures, decreased laboratory activities, and shifting to remote working. The effects of the pandemic have spread across all professions, including academia. Hence, the present study aims to understand the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) researchers and stakeholders in India. Methods: The study employed a mixed method design. Both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) methods were used to gain a comprehensive understanding on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) early career researchers (ECRs), graduate students, Heads of Institutes, suppliers of scientific equipment, funders, and other stakeholders in India. Results: A total of 618 researchers completed the survey, and 24 stakeholders were interviewed for this study. Our findings highlight the importance of institutional and social support for mental well-being and scientific productivity among researchers, especially during the pandemic. It also shows the impact of the disruptions in grant disbursals on research activities of scientists. Further, the gendered impact between these relationships was also noted, all of which hint at a need for structured reform within STEM. Conclusions: The study highlights the various challenges faced by early career researchers, and STEM scientists at various positions in their careers during the COVID-19 restrictions in India.

Women’s empowerment is often defined to include aspects of agency, autonomy and choice, which in turn has consequences for facing intimate partner violence (IPV) and the ability of a woman to fulfil childcare responsibilities. This suggests that empowerment is directly and indirectly (via IPV) associated with child nutrition outcomes (CNOs), especially in South Asian countries where gendered norms may place the onus of childcare on mothers. We explore the interplay between empowerment, IPV and CNOs using nationally representative datasets from three South Asian countries—India, Nepal and Pakistan. We use a multivariate probit approach to investigate the direct and indirect effect of women’s empowerment and autonomy on child malnourishment (stunting, wasting and underweight). Across all countries, we find a strong statistically significant effect of improvements in decision-making power on increased likelihood of facing certain types of IPV. We also find a strong negative relationship between facing less severe violence in particular and CNOs across all countries, indicating that such violence experienced by mothers was detrimental to CNOs. Increasing women’s decision-making power within the household can help ameliorate adverse CNOs, and in India particularly, this increase in decision-making autonomy reduced the incidence of stunting and underweight children. The study concludes with limitations and directions for future work.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the nationally mandated lockdown has resulted in facility closures, decreased laboratory activities, and shifting to remote working. The effects of the pandemic have spread across all professions, including academia. Hence, the present study aims to understand the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) researchers and stakeholders in India. Methods: The study employed a mixed method design. Both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) methods were used to gain a comprehensive understanding on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) early career researchers (ECRs), graduate students, Heads of Institutes, suppliers of scientific equipment, funders, and other stakeholders in India. Results: A total of 618 researchers completed the survey, and 24 stakeholders were interviewed for this study. Our findings highlight the importance of institutional and social support for mental well-being and scientific productivity among researchers, especially during the pandemic. It also shows the impact of the disruptions in grant disbursals on research activities of scientists. Further, the gendered impact between these relationships was also noted, all of which hint at a need for structured reform within STEM. Conclusions: The study highlights the various challenges faced by early career researchers, and STEM scientists at various positions in their careers during the COVID-19 restrictions in India.