MUMBAI, Nov. 14 -- Despite being a coveted institute for higher technical education, gender representation among students in the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, or IIT-B, (as also similar institutes) has remained skewed, often reflected in industry participation. In order to bridge this gap, with its global alumni associations and the IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation, the institute is set to launch Lumina, an initiative that aims to create a strong, inclusive mentorship and networking platform to help forge ties between its present students and successful alumnae working across diverse fields around the world. The foundation is a non-profit organization, founded in 1996 and based in USA, which works to strengthen ties between IIT-B and its global alumni community. Lumina is designed around three core pillars - Connect, Mentor, and Celebrate and Inspire - with an aim to offer career guidance to women at IIT-B, by drawing from the experiences and stories of other women who have excelled globally. "We want to create a network that helps alumnae and students build mentorships by supporting each other, so that students can achieve their full potential," said the Lumina team over an email correspondence with HT. It emphasised that "this is not a one-time event, but meant to evolve with ongoing participation and feedback from its members". Women in IITs have historically faced multiple challenges -- from low representation to the burden of balancing career and family responsibilities. Although IIT-B's female student ratio has improved due to supernumerary seats, with the total number rising from 3,185 in 2020 to 3,664 in 2025, women still make up only about 20% of the student population. "Women continue to be a minority in technical environments and often struggle with visibility and mentorship. Lumina seeks to change this narrative," the team added. The initiative will come to life with a virtual kickoff on Saturday, featuring two distinguished IIT-B alumnae -- Kavita Bala, provost of Cornell University, and Sharada Srinivasan, archaeologist and professor at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. Over 250 from across the world have already registered for the event. The heritage foundation's founding president Anil Kshirsagar (Class of 1975), played a key role in conceptualizing Lumina. "This initiative reflects the spirit of the institute where mentorship and collaboration shape not just careers, but lives," he said. One of the participants of Lumina, Sharada Srinivasan, 59, a 1987 IIT-B alumna, recalled her days on campus as both challenging and transformative. "In the 1980s, the ratio of women to men was almost 1:20. And yet, although we felt lonely at times, the institute gave us a safe and empowering environment - a rare experience for women at the time," she said. "We studied late into the night and even headed out for chai at 2 am without any fear. That independence helped shape our confidence and curiosity." Srinivasan, who will participate in Lumina's first panel discussion, called the initiative "a wonderful step forward". "It is not just about networking but mentorship and visibility. When young women see those who have walked before them, it will inspire confidence." Continuing with Srinivasan's thread of thought, physicist and IIT-B alumna (1985 batch) Shobhana Narasimhan, 62, said, "The platform can help women students connect with their seniors and learn from their experiences." In her time, women were barely 5% of the student population on campus. Underlining the isolation they faced, she shared an incident from a freshers' debate. "When asked to choose a symbol of IIT culture, one of the boys said it should be dark glasses to symbolize the blind eye they were forced to turn to the ugly IIT females. No one protested, everyone laughed!" "Much has improved since then, but women students still face challenges; and initiatives such as Lumina will help them build confidence, overcome bias and find direction in their careers," said Narasimhan. A Metallurgical Engineering graduate from the 1992 batch, Rekha Koita, co-founder of the Koita Foundation, an organization focused on using technology for social impact, particularly in the digital transformation of healthcare and NGOs, said the new initiative will "help create role models for younger students on campus". In 2021, Rekha and husband Rizwan Koita, both from the same batch, donated Rs.25 crore to establish the Koita Centre for Digital Health (KCDH) on campus. Reflecting on her student days, she recalled how it was often "difficult to participate in class because there were so few of us, even though the environment on campus was women-friendly"....