First Female Engineer Alumnus of BEC Passes Away.

Ila Majumdar was born on 24th July, 1930 at Madaripur village, Faridpur district, East Bengal. Born to a family of six sisters and two brothers, Ila Majjumdar’s father Jatindra Kumar Majumdar was a first classfirst in MSc, a Deputy Magistrate (Bengal Civil Service) of undivided Bengal. Her mother was a housewife. Young Ila Majumdar was a bit different from others. So when she started riding a bicycle at the age of 12 and learned how to drive a jeep at 16, it raised quite a lot of eyebrows amongst her friends and relatives.But when she wanted to become an engineer, and her affectionate father approved it, it was too much for the people to digest! “I always liked challenges and liked to do what people said girls can’t do” she says with pride.

Due to communal tensions, her family shifted to West Bengal. In 1944, she was studying in class 9 at Khulna. The family had to migrate to Calcutta in 1945 and she lost 1 year of school calendar year. She could not get admission to any school and had to appear for matriculation, in private; two years ahead of the right age. She was always a good student in school but got mere second division marks. Brushing aside the initial disappointment, she took admission in Asutosh College, Calcutta for her ISC. “I got a first division then.”

In 1947, it was the first time since India’s independence the government announced that all areas of study would be made open for both girls and boys. Because BE College didn’t have any infrastructure for girl students, she had a special interview at a later date. And she was selected in BE College as well as in Calcutta Medical College. The then education minister, Nikunja Behari Maity, opened the doors of Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur for women. Two girls got through the entrance examination however one girl, Ajana Guha dropped out in the second year. 

Those days only few women opted for a career and the handful did stuck to medicine. Ila Majumdar could get through the medical entrance too, but engineering was what she wanted to study. The Principal of Bengal Engineering College and the faculty were very protective about her, especially after she became the only female student in the college. The principal did not allow her to take up Civil engineering as that involved extensive field study. So she took up Mechanical engineering. Studying in Bengal Engineering College turned out to be a memorable experience. “There was only one other woman in the entire batch. The boys were shocked, but all of them soon became good friends. They would chat and crack jokes and cheer them at cricket matches. Never did she feel uncomfortable. Initially she could get a one room accommodation in the ground floor of Principal’s bungalow (what we call White House now, right side corner room facing the river side). Then she had to move to a room, left corner side of the library (what is Gymnasium now). Imagine in the whole library (or gymnasium, whatever you say), she was living alone, with matron Usha Chowdhury. Their food used to come from Downing hostel. Ila-di painfully says, we were six sisters and my father was not that rich. So most of the days, I had to skip the breakfast and tiffin.

On social life in the campus, she was the lone girl student amongst 800+ boys. She now admits that therewere many boys, both Indian and European who wanted to be emotionally attached with her, and she had to overcome those difficult situations. She specially acknowledges Prof. Pulin Behari Ghosh, the HOD of Civil Engineering, who was like a local guardian of her. The other girl ‘Ajanta Guha’ always wore a trouser and a shirt and Ila Majumdar wore a sari in front of many curious eyes. In the afternoon, they had drawing class. In those days, even girls had to carry the drawing board and the T-square, and they could notice, hundreds of boys peeping into their class room from outside.

Finally she graduated in 1951 setting an example. She became the first woman Mechanical Engineer of India. Ila Majumdar then did her postgraduate training from Glasgow-based company Barr and Stroud. “The Principal would not hear of me doing an apprenticeship in India. He felt I would be very uncomfortable in a workshop full of boys. I was initially worried whether my father would be able to shoulder the financial burden. But he agreed,” she says. Thus she became the first engineering woman apprentice to go abroad, another milestone she could set. 

Back in India after her training, she could set another example by taking up a job in the ordnance factory in Dehra Dun, where she lived alone in the staff quarters. “My parents were so worried that they forced me to take a servant along.” In the process, she could set another milestone, the first woman engineer to work in a heavy engineering production floor. A six-month stint later, in 1955 she took up a lecturer’s post in Delhi Polytechnic. This was the only government engineering college at that time in Delhi, under Delhi University. Within a short time she published two books, Applied Mechanics through worked examples and Hydraulics through worked examples. 

Marriage brought her back to Calcutta, first as a lecturer at the Institute of Jute Technology, and then as the principal of Women’s Polytechnic on Gariahat Road. “I was approached to set up the college. We started off by offering only courses in architecture and electronics, which we felt were women-friendly. The response was overwhelming,” she said. So successful was her stint in Calcutta that in the year 1985 she was appointed the CAO in UNESCO sponsored project to setup Mahila Polytechnic in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her appointment came through difficult stages as the West Bengal government did not want to release her and she too was initially reluctant to leave her home and two sons behind. But finally the love of a challenge prompted her to take up the one-and-a-half year contract. While at Dhaka she rescued a Hindu widow — who had lost her family to communal strife — and brought her back to Calcutta. Since then Kokila Saha, old and bent now, lives with her. It has been many years since she has retired. Now she spends time playing bridge tournaments. “Cards, the Internet and television keep me always occupied,” she says, smiling contently.

On gender bias, she says “Of course, I have faced gender bias all the time in my professional life. I think it will take a long time to change the mindset of the society, and there is no other way to bear it. But it hurts when the cases of selection / promotion comes, how the authorities find flimsy excuses not to offer a woman her rightful place as they feel she is not supposed to boss over men. One had to tolerate this”

Source: Mr. Asim Deb  '77ETC

Please open the attachment to learn more about our beloved Ila di's interview with GAABESU in 2009.