 My name is Kamalakshi and I'm studying telecommunications engineering and networking and it's my second year at the university. In the faculty, especially the faculty of engineering, it was a male-dominated field and girls were even scared to step into it. I've had friends telling me that why should a girl go on site in the midst of boys and you know just why get your hands dirty and do all this stuff. But I think it has changed. When I joined this field of study, it was completely different. It's a very supportive and enriching learning environment that we've created where boys and power girls, girls and boys and vice versa. It's just amazing to see that this has evolved and it keeps evolving. It is good to have a good gender balance because this is a field which is not restricted to one gender. The nature of telecommunications and networking has become more and more software defined. Most of the tasks can be performed directly by just programming applications. So it's good to encourage both male and female to be involved in this field because it concerns everyone. But we could do more to increase the intake of girls in our courses and I think at that level probably the faculty and the department can do some outreach programs at school levels to encourage students to join our program. The job prospects in the field of telecommunications are immense. At the same time it's a very fascinating field where you can explore several technologies which are helping people in all spheres of life and this is expected to have an even greater impact with the advent of 5G mobile technologies. Mauritius is in the eyes of others a tiny dot on the world map that's barely visible but with the major breakthroughs that we're having in the coming months we're planning a satellite launch and nano-satellites. We are moving forward more girls are taught how to code in school from a very early age and I think now is the time to be bold, to be brave, to break all the barriers and just go for it. If men can do it then I think women can do it as well.