- By JF, Just Femme on 16/5/2010
Women and technology don't mix well is the popular notion. But the non-profit organisation Feminist Approach to Technology is setting up its Tech Centre in Delhi, which will train and familiarise girls with computers as well as other day-to-day technologies, helping them break a few barriers. Payal Dhar finds out more.
“I want to learn graphic designing and multimedia.” Pretty normal a dream for an 18-year-old. But if you live in a slum in India and you are a girl to boot, chances are it will remain exactly that — a dream. However, thanks to a forthcoming Tech Centre of the Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT), dozens of young girls in and around the slums of Lajpat Nagar in Delhi are getting a chance to storm hitherto male fields of technology.
FAT, a non-profit organisation, is the brainchild of Gayatri Buragohain. Set up a few years back to take up cudgels against the prevalent notion that women are inept with technology, FAT has since been committed to empowering women to “learn, use and make technology”. There are many barriers to women’s access to technology, and FAT’s experience showed that there exists a link between social privilege and the opportunity to learn about or work with technology. Thus, the idea of the Tech Centre was conceptualised with the aim of familiarising girls with “the most commonly used electrical, electronic and mechanical technologies so that they be empowered to take up this kind of work as livelihood options.
The Centre, expected to be up and running soon, already has 20 girls lined up to join. Aimed at 15- to 25-year-olds, it is expected to be more than just a course. It is going to double up as a space for girls, where they can expect to work and use machinery and technology without fear of ridicule or reprimand, supported by an all-female staff. The course is divided into three modules that familiarise the student with computers and the Internet; teach about day-to-day electrical, electronic and mechanical technologies; and provide personal development to enable the girls gain confidence to take their knowledge out into the world.
Gayatri and the others behind the venture do not expect that things will change overnight. But their earlier experience with workshops for girls from poor backgrounds has amply demonstrated how this new knowledge arms them with confidence. “We are not making any promise to provide jobs, because we want the space to be a technology laboratory where girls come to learn technology rather than just to get a job,” says Gayatri. “However, we will be helping girls who want to use their technical skills to find job.”
Saraswati, a 19-year-old who was a benefactor of one of FAT’s basic computer skills workshops, is a shining example of the boost that the combination of knowledge and confidence can bring. “Yes, my future has changed because [I] know about computers,” she says, adding that learning and practising on the computer has helped her not only learn something that was otherwise closed to her, but she can now also help others like herself. Saraswati has been working at FAT for over a year now, managing the front desk, doing maintenance work and supporting the team on field jobs. She is excited about the centre: with knowledge of computers and technical work, girls—including herself—have a real chance of a career, she feels.
Arti, a class XI student, is also looking forward to starting at the Centre. “Yes I think my future will change,” she says. “I have always wanted to learn computers. In today’s world, unless you know computers you cannot do anything.”
There are millions of Artis and Saraswatis out there who are not helped by prevalent social stereotypes about women and technical work. This has lead to efforts aimed at helping women get familiarised with technology not being fruitful and long-lasting enough to make a difference. “Every woman needs to feel comfortable using the most common technologies and technical equipment around her,” believes Gayatri. “[Also,] equal participation of women in producing technology and decision making around technology is important to make sure that widely used technology does not work adversely for [them].” She goes on to point out that despite there being significantly lesser participation of women in using technology and in the technical workforce compared to men, “not much discussion is happening in India and elsewhere around the issue.”
This is in fact something that FAT seeks to take up and work around: to create mass awareness on the issue of women and technology, and facilitate easy and accessible technology education for them. “For women to participate fully in this change, they should not be intimidated by technology,” says FAT’s mission statement. The organisation’s vision of the future is to show the world that technology is gender-neutral and that men and women equally are able to efficiently use it.
The Tech Centre is just one such initiative. In addition, FAT has been conducting short-term workshops, and plans to work on developing training methodologies keeping gender perspectives in view. Their We, Women in Technology (WeWIT) campaign works towards building a community of women in technology as a support and inspiration for the “future generation of technical women”. They also conduct capacity-building exercises for other women’s organisations to help take technology and technical knowledge down to women at the grassroots.
Knowledge is power. Sir Francis Bacon’s immortal words have certainly started to ring true for the Artis and Saraswatis in one small corner of the world.
Payal Dhar is an author and a freelance writer who flits between Bangalore and Delhi. You can find out more about her at Writeside.net
