Techy Feminist

This blog has been moved!

2011-02-28T22:22:00.001-08:00

This blog has been moved to www.fat-net.org/blog. Please check the new site!

A hope for a big change...

2010-07-14T03:40:00.000-07:00

The Tech centre had much been talked about. Worried about. Still further worried about, worked on harder for. Now it is happening. Started and happening. Right here, on the 3rd floor of our office at Lajpat Nagar. Feels good. A new feeling. The noises. The talking. Not a quiet place any more. The door opens more frequently than before , as new faces enter with hopes and dreams under construction.

Quite incredible, while I was updating their profiles, I figured that most of them are married domestic helpers, working for almost 6 hours a day and they have decided to spend the rest of their free time in educating themselves. Life well utilised, the desire to learn, the hope to grow. Inspiring...

These girls sitting in the next room, set a great example for any normal kid who hates going to school, because these girls don't get it very easy. They don't get anything easy. Sometimes not even decent good food. But they're doing it! They have taken this opportunity at the Tech centre and we are proud of them for doing so. For taking on the responsibility, to decide for themselves where they want to be, learning to take control of how much they want to know.

The Tech centre that was launched on 3rd of July recently, is sincerely being attended by these young women, with much discipline as they come to learn computing and English enthusiastically on time. We are very fortunate to have dedicated and compassionate volunteers, Maria (from Hungary) and Tanya (from Moldova), who despite of their communication divide, have been working hard and much patience, with the girls at the Tech centre, helping each one of them bring forth the best of their ability.

Only a few of the girls attending have had an encounter with a computer in their past, besides having studied up-to class 10th or 11th. The rest of the girls have never had the opportunity to touch a computer before, exposed to minimum education. But none of that matters any more! As all of these girls are already , enthusiastically working on Word and excel, making charts, learning to calculate, making neat tables for keeping a track of attendance and names and so on!!

Saraswathi (our office assistant) has also been trying her best to help the girls feel familiar with the computers. She is encouraging the students to feel comfortable with the computers while multi- tasking, being allowed with the comfort of attending her little 11 month old baby Surya, side by side at the office. Saraswathi, who has already been trained here with basic computing communication skills, confidently assists her fellow batch mates if they are stuck some way, while her baby joyfully plays and crawls about chuckling.

Sitting in this office, we feel happy with the launch, content with the response . A different picture has been unfolding before my eyes. There are people trying, trying to break out of the box, the box that these young women have been taught to live in. There are people trying to object, rejecting the confinements that make them unhappy. Bringing about a message, one doesn't need to give up on now, there is always a hope for a big change.

KHUSHBOO JAIN
Communications Trainee

Guest post: Zandra Karlsson

2010-04-08T02:02:00.000-07:00

This is Zandra writing. You probably don't know me as I have not previously posted anything on this blog. So, let me introduce myself. I'm a Finnish marketing student doing my internship here at FAT. I work mostly with grant-writing, but also with other fund-raising tasks and I help out with the marketing in general for FAT. I'm writing here now to tell you about one of the most incredible experiences I have had here in India. And believe me, I have experience a lot of new things during my more than five months here.

On the 28th of January this year we went to the slums of Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi to meet with and interview some of the girls interested in joining the Tech Centre FAT is setting up. As you have probably already come to know, FAT is currently working hard to start a eduction centre for underprivileged girls. At the moment we are looking for funding for the centre. To raise funds, we wanted to reach both international and national private donors with our message and the messages of the basti girls. This is why we decided to do an online campaign for the center, and for this, we needed at promotion video.

We decided to interview the girls for the video. What would be better than to let the girls themselves speak to the donors? This way the audience would get a true feel of the lives of the girls now and how the centre could improve it.

Coming from a country where something like slums do not exist, I was both nervous and exited to see the place the girls live and meet with them and their families. I was also exited about experiencing how a promotion video like this is filmed and produced.

When we first got there we walked around to find a good place to film at. We also met with the girls who we wanted to interview. They seemed a bit shy, but very happy to meet with us.

The streets in the basti were narrow and lined with small brick houses cramped close together. Although the people were obviously poor with very little means to survive on, the streets and the houses were still kept clean and orderly. The houses were painted in bright colors, which gave more positive feel to the community. The people living in the basti were so welcoming and willing to help and show us around. They were very friendly and talkative. I was amazed at how they were able to enjoy positive things in life although their lot is not an easy one.

As we walked to the street where we had decided to make the interviews, so many people from the community gathered around us. Everybody was friendly and smiling. As exited as I was about visiting the basti, it seemed like it was equally exiting for them to have us there. The kids were playing around us and more and more people were coming to see what was going on.

The was a lot of setting up to do; to arrange the place where the interviews could be filmed, to arrange microphones, and to get the camera in the right position. Once the girls started speaking, however, I could really feel that this was going to be a great video. When they talked about the centre and the workshop that Gayatri had previously held for them, their eyes lit up and their voices got all exited. Although I could hardly understand one word that they were saying, I still understood how much hope for a better future a centre like this could give them. I came to realise that it is this hope and their own confidence that will have the biggest role in changing their lives. Practical skills will provide them with the opportunity, but it is their own belief in themselves that will make things happen. This is why it is so important that the centre is not only focused on the technical skills, but also on promoting leadership skills and confidence among the girls, and on giving support in tackling social issues.

I'm soon on my way back to Finland, but if there is one thing that will alway stay with me, it will be the experiences I have had and the people I have met while working for FAT. I will always remember the girls from the basti and hope for the best for their future. I truly believe that with a little bit of support, the centre will be a great success story and that it will make a true change in the lives of the girls. I feel so pleased in being able to contribute at least this much of my time to such a worthy cause.

Workshop with FST

2010-02-27T04:15:00.000-08:00

I am at the office of Foundation for Social Transformation right now doing a workshop for the team on optimum use of technology for FST. Having great fun here! Check out some photos!

Talibanism in Technology

2010-01-12T04:55:00.000-08:00

Seven reasons why women in technology remain invisible...

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Deepa Kandaswamy (http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/special/103022602.asp)

Most of us have heard of the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the modern world. We also know it was built in memory of Mumtaz Mahal. But how many of us know of her aunt, Nor Mahal? She invented the device to perform attar distillation from flowers to make perfumes.

Despite 4,000 years of contribution, we do not know about most pioneering women in technology—like Empress Shi Dun, who invented paper, Penthesilea, who invented the battle axe, and Catherine Green, who invented the cotton gin (though Eli Whitney holds the patent).

Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse, was also a brilliant mathematician, and her contribution as the inventor of the pie chart that businesses, technologists, researchers and governments throughout the world use today, is virtually unknown.

This continues even in this ‘Information Age’ where we boast of living in knowledge-based societies. How many of us know of Helen Greiner, a scientist and the only woman to run a robot company in the world or of Vanitha Rangaraju who is the only Indian woman to win an Oscar for her technical work for the movie Shrek?

A lot has been written about the Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women, which resulted in the worldwide outcry against women wearing full-length burkhas, which rendered them invisible and the denial of their fundamental rights. However, there’s not even a whimper about the systematic Talibanism of women in technology, which has made them invisible throughout the ages. Despite a large number of talented and successful women in the field, why is it that society tends to associate only men with technology? This appears to be a global phenomenon, cutting across class, race, and the development of countries.

After elaborate research and having interviewed several women and men in the fields of education, business and technology, I found there are seven primary reasons why women in technology continue to remain invisible—social myths, conditioning, media, networking, deterrence, balance and marketing.

Social myths
Cutting across cultural differences, the patriarchal system has always the defined the place and role of a woman. This has led to perpetuation of myths like:

Myth #1: Women are emotional while tech is strictly logical. As a result, they don’t go together.

Myth #2: Men are good at math and machines while women have no clue about these.
Myth #3: Men are the providers while women are nurturers.
Myth #4: Technical women are unattractive, arrogant, and abnormal.
Myth #5: Women can’t do it because they are made that way: the divine or the evolution argument.
Myth #6: Women aren’t as good at visualizing as men, and hence, don’t make good engineers.

A lot of research exploring these myths is collecting dust in various organizations throughout the world. Anne Fausto-Sterling examines these issues in "Myths of Gender". In her book, she describes the research studies conducted to analyze adult brain differences. The conclusion of these various studies proves that verbal ability, visual spatial perception, and math ability have nothing to do with the gender of a human being.

However, many males accept these myths readily. Njin-Tsoe Chen, project leader, Schuitema, Netherlands, observes, "To some degree it’s society, but evolution also plays a role. Men and women are different." A recent survey conducted by search engine AltaVista found that the myth of men being better in technology, alive on the internet, as 80% of the men claimed they are better surfers than their female partners.

"I think that the number of women in science and technology is certainly larger than zero but it is a small percentage—5% or less," says Dr Hemker, German Physicist at Credit Suisse. Aggressive women get labeled as bitches. There is a program in California for ‘bossy broads,’ women whose assertiveness scares men and whose companies send them to learn how to ‘temper’ their behavior. Implicit attitudes are difficult to change. When a woman shatters these myths and succeeds in the technical field, she is made out to be a honchess, arrogant feminist or said to have slept her way through to the top. Instead of being accepted for their accomplishments, successful women are questioned as to how they became successful.

Conditioning
The social myths perpetuate stereotypes that lead to conditioning. There is pressure on women to look and behave in certain ways, which is deeply ingrained in their psyches. Perception is everything. Kate Millet, the writer and educator said, "Many women do not recognize themselves as discriminated against; no better proof could be found of the totality of their conditioning." Stereotypes based on social myths exist because of mass media. It starts at an early stage when parenting is done using stereotypes—girls like dolls and boys like cars. "I think it does kids harm not to see what they gravitate towards and make toy selections appropriately. I was always jealous of my brother’s radio controlled cars and electronics sets," says Helen Greiner, president of iRobot.

According to Diana Bouchard, graphic artist, Quebec, Canada, "Looking through thousands of photographs weekly, women are depicted 95% of the time as ‘beginners’ with males standing behind them, pointing at the computer screen as if to say ‘ok, now you click here.’ It’s indicative of male mentality that women don’t get it." When young girls see this, they assume technology is not for them. While there’s much discussion about the social impact of the media’s depiction of a woman’s body, there is almost none about the impact it has on careers and educational aspirations.

In an Internet survey where I polled over 2,557 women working in the technical field, 56% of the women stated they have never been able to wear a skirt to work in any tech industry job event, because they’re afraid of being perceived as unprofessional. 70% said plain glasses, little or no make up, and a tight hair bun helps them if they want their work to be taken seriously. Finally, the conditioning is so absolute that women are told they are automatically empowered by the design of the technological environment known as the kitchen with all its fancy gadgets, which turns out to be a way of luring women to occupy their assigned place in society. This is better known as the "gendering of space" argument, which was propounded by Dr Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University, Ohio.

Media
By not covering successful women in technology, the media denies the next generation role models. Today, if you flip through any popular technical magazine, you would rarely find an article written by or about a woman. Why?

David Ball, editor of Packet Magazine, answers, "Out of my top five freelance writers, four of them are women. While our writers get bylines, in many cases, the byline goes to the content expert that was interviewed for the story. There appears to be more male engineers and technical product managers than female." Regarding dearth of articles about women, Don Davis, editor, Card Technology magazine, says, "The majority of the executives in the industry we primarily cover are men. Thus, most of the knowledgeable sources are men. As for the audience, I’m sure it’s mostly male."

Thus, editors justify lack of coverage saying their readers (again assumed to be male) wouldn’t be interested in knowing about women in technology. It is up to the women’s magazines to cover these topics and personalities. This becomes a vicious cycle as the typical woman’s magazine covers what are considered "women" subjects like fashion, beauty, and family and leave IT to tech magazines.

"There should be a proper regulatory framework to ensure that the broadcasters’ air programmes on successful women in technology. The regulators should ensure that broadcasters comply," says Emily Khamula, Broadcasting Officer in Malawi, Africa.

Prof Rodney Brooks, MIT, disagrees. "See the article in Forbes on iRobot, featuring Helen Greiner and the movie Me & Isaac Newton, featuring my former student Maja Mataric. Or see the press coverage for my former student Cynthia Brezeal—Time magazine featured a story, plus myriad TV appearances. None of my former male students have done as well in the press as these three."

A woman who swims with sharks has a better chance of being published than a man who does the same thing. Why? Because she is considered a maverick. Mass media coverage of Prof Brooks’ three former female students who specialized in robotics can be explained as robotics is still considered a maverick field for technical women. Despite the social myth that women in technology are abnormal, why don’t they get the limelight? This is because only ‘displayable’ aggressiveness results in limelight. For women in technology, externally, one mightn’t seem aggressive; internally, they have to be because of the job, which doesn’t make good copy.

Networking
Lack of networking plays an enormous role in rendering women in technology invisible. It is hard for women, however, to hang out with their male colleagues after work. Two factors remain as major obstacles to networking.

n Old Boys’ network.
n Male colleagues’ wives or girlfriends.

A female senior manager at Intel, says, "I find networking to be a major problem. I cannot have the same informal ‘outside work’ relationship with my peers and senior executives that my male ‘competitors’ could have without spouses being concerned and some people’s tongues wagging."

Most of the time progress at work depends on being able to have the same access to male co-workers after hours as the other male co-workers have. This isolates women from the "old boys’ network" and trust building that occurs at senior levels that leads to more opportunities.

Deterrence
Deterrence is done in two places—school and home. According to a Unesco study, girls consistently match or surpass boys’ achievements in science and mathematics in schools across the world. In developed countries, young women are discouraged from pursuing engineering. In developing countries, there is refusal to invest in a girl’s technical education.

A study by the National Science Foundation found gender-based inequities in the USA. According to it, despite gains in girls’ participation in advanced math in the 1990s, 34% of the girls report being advised not to take math in their senior year of high school.

According to a NIME study, in Asia most families across cultures are willing to invest in technical education for their girl child because it improves marriage prospects but after marriage inevitably, over 50% of these women do not pursue a full-time career.

Balance
Working hours required and the social set up for the jobs in the technical field demand quite different commitments. This directly affects the socially defined role of a woman as a nurturer. Therefore most women feel there is a lack of balance in their lives and this leads to guilt. In Californian Law, pregnancy itself is considered a disability with a note from your doctor.

Shazia Harris, a clinical psychologist and researcher in education, Pakistan says, "My research indicates that females will opt for fulltime jobs if the option is available even after marriage and even after having children which was one of the major factors for losing the professional female workforce, i.e., home responsibilities before career."

Marketing
Generally, men market themselves better. In her book ‘What’s Holding You Back?’ Linda Austin says men tend to over-represent their abilities and qualifications by 30-40%, while women under-represent theirs by the same amount. This works to a 60-80% gap between what a man and a woman with similar qualifications claim. Accord-ing to Jennifer Pikes, an engineer who worked for IBM, "Even in the ‘soft’ technical area (technical writing department), men seemed far more eager to make a name for themselves than the women did."

Though social perceptions are slowly changing, women in the technical workplace remain behind the scenes because they tend to play down their contributions. This is because "feminism" has become a bad word in today’s society. Many women in the technical field are scared of being labeled "feminist" that they would rather ‘dumb down’ than take credit for their work. Also, social conditioning tends to make women as secondary, non-aggressive, non-risk-taking team players.

Recommendations
Dorothy Parker once said, "You can’t teach an old dogma new tricks." True, but why not create a new one? For starters, we could begin by asking the same questions that members of the civil rights movement did. This issue of invisibility of women in technology is currently hovering between intent and execution, with industry leaders wishing the whole issue would simply disappear instead of addressing the problem head-on. This is where government advocacy and media can play an enormous role.

Technical workplaces founded on a male ‘norm’ need to be changed to allow fair competition for jobs and advancement for women whose strategies differ from the norm. If the norm involves weekend ‘beer busts’, it’s not the female employee who needs to ‘loosen up’ but the employer who needs to identify appropriate venues for company meetings and encourage diversity.

Femininity as the culturally defined model of female behavior enforced from the outside needs to be examined. One needs to strongly reject any sort of artificial ‘femininity’ and teach our society to embrace diversity, to allow girls to be ‘technically’ ambitious without labeling them ‘tomboys’ and to allow boys to be sensitive without branding them ‘sissies’. Generalizations based on myths should not be assumed of any particular man, nor used to discriminate against any particular woman.

While ignoring the contributions of a single individual is really bad and ignoring the contributions of a minority is appalling, ignoring the potential contributions of half the population can be best explained in two words—plain stupid.

Finally we've got things rolling!

2009-12-28T05:43:00.000-08:00

I always decide that I will re-start blogging about FAT and our work, but managed to never find the time to do so. But today is a good day to start, so I am all charged and writing after a long long break. One of the reasons behind this is the realization that we have not been documenting the start-up phase of FAT and the stories of our hard work to be able tell our future team, "A lot of sweat and blood has been invested in it dears" :).

So today we went to do a recce of the Lajpat Nagar Basti area where we plan to start our "Tech Centre for girls" for which we have been asking for money all these days. The plan was to meet the girls whom we had trained earlier, tell them about the progress, get them to help us find a space and gather local support.

So Hassath, Zandra and I reached the basti at around 12 noon. We were supposed to be joined by Saraswathi, who could not come. I thought it would be easy to find one of the girl's house, as I have been there before, and she could help us find the rest of the girls. Of course, not as easy as it sounds! After walking all around the basti many times, asking literally every person we spotted where we could find the girls we were looking for, finally we could not find any one of them. So we decided we should go and get Saraswathi from her house, only she could navigate the basti. But then I thought, one last try, and headed of again into the basti.

Finally we found Aarti, Mamta and Nomita, and were so glad to see their wide smiles when we told them we are finally starting the centre. This smile was really worth the trouble taken to reach to them :).

The girls took us to their family, and lucky for us, we met this very enthusiastic and supportive man, Aarti's mama (uncle). He immediately suggested may be we can check out a centre that's already there nearby, which teaches girls tailoring and stitching. They may have some extra space! He took us there promptly. Though the place was closed, we did collect the phone numbers. We hope to get to talk to someone there tomorrow and see how things go.

At this point we still don't have enough money to really start the centre. We have some computers though! (Yes, we got 2 brand new computers donated by Intel. Yay!!!) But then, if you really want to do something, you should not wait. Start with what you have, and keep planning for how to get the rest.

This centre is our dream. And soon it will come true...

Bhopal Workshop

2008-06-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

I could not blog regularly on the workshop. Time was less and Internet accessibility was a problem.

The workshop went well, much better then I expected it to go. By the end of the 4th day, Muskaan's website was ready (minus the content). It will be up soon with the content at www.muskaan.org.

The first day when I entered the Muskaan centre, some girls were going through photographs and selecting some for the website. I was impressed by their enthusiasm. All of them were eagerly waiting for the workshop to begin. Maheen tried to introduce me to the group, but they stopped her! They said, "Let her introduce herself." So I introduced myself. Each of the girls greeted me with a smile. I could feel the energy those smiles were injecting into me.

After lunch we all went upstairs to the computer room. There were 5 machines, 3 out of them were usable. First day we went through an introduction to Internet, websites, servers, domain names, hosting and website designing. Then we tried some html coding. The goal of the workshop was to help the girls learn website designing, so Maheen and I had earlier decided that we will develop a plain HTML site. If they can understand and learn HTML coding, then they can proceed to learn other website technologies, may be CMS later on.

I was amazed to see how fast the girls were picking up. We divided them into 3 groups and made them code a simple web page.

The second day we did the same exercise using a web authoring tool. Before the workshop, the girls had made some designs for the Muskaan website on paper. We selected 3 designs out of those and gave one to each group. They all made one design each. Then we invited the Muskaan staff to look at the designs and select one for the final website. Each team wanted their design to be selected. There was a chaos in the room when they all shouted together, "Our design is the best, select this one,..." The Muskaan staff liked something or the other from all the designs. So finally we decided we will pick up stuff from all the 3 designs and create a new design.

Maheen and Shivani were working on the website architecture in a separate room while we were all working on the design. So as per the website architecture, the website will have six sections. The girls said we want 6 banners for the 6 sections of the website. So the third day was devoted towards making banners by using photo editors, scanning and optimizing the images for the website. Then they also learned how to hyperlink different pages.

The 4th day was a bit chaotic. I felt like the girls were getting intimidated by the volume of work that needs to be done to set up a 6 sectioned, 57 paged website. And it is quite justified for anyone new to website designing. So I did not let them work on the entire website. Instead we did a revision of all that we had learned in the previous days and I showed them how to put in the content of the website as and when it is ready. We agreed that we will keep this process going on through more online sessions and practice. I have promised them that I shall be online to help them for 2 hrs every 15 days.

Looking at them reinforced my belief that the most underprivileged women can learn the latest complicated technologies if they get a chance to learn. All the 7 girls in this workshop are from the Gondi tribe of Madhya Pradesh, now settled in the Ganganagar area of Bhopal since about last 25 years. I visited the basti the 3rd day of the workshop. Muskaan has been working with this basti, and many more bastis in Bhopal, for the last 10 years and what they have achieved is really commendable. The girls of the basti, who earlier had very less chances of getting to go to school and were married off or would get married at a very young age, are now getting the opportunity to study as much as they want to with the help of Muskaan. Amongst the 7 girls attending this website workshop, Chandni has just passed higher secondary in science with 1st division marks! 2 other girls also appeared higher secondary in science and will be giving the physics paper once more. The rest of the girls are in class 11 and class 10. Priti has been interning with Ekalavya in this summer vacation. Maheen volunteers to teach then computers. They all are quite good with MS office, Photoshop, Pagemaker and Paint. They can also type in both English and Hindi.

Most of the women in the basti make brooms and sell them in the market. The men work as daily wagers. Muskaan works with them on livilihood, saving, violence, health and education through different programs.

Muskaan works with the children through informal schools that they have set up. Muskaan runs a few hostels for teenage girls and supports their education. Keeping the girls in hostels also prevents their early marriage.

Bhopal workshop: Day 1

2008-06-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Wonderful workshop today. The shitty journey overnight on the Bhopal express, with a rowdy gang of guys, am tired, but happy that I came here for this workshop.

There are 7 girls and 2 Muskaan volunteers attending the workshop. Outside the workshop room, the whole Muskaan team is working to get the content of the website ready. The girls are very fun to be with, very attentive and active. Some girls can learn very fast.

First day I gave them an idea of what the Internet is, what is a server, how websites work and what are the steps in designing a website. Then we did some hands-on with HTML coding.

Day 10, Last day of the workshop (13th June)

2008-06-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

Power failure since eleven in the morning. And it was the last day. I was tense that I won't be able to print the girl's project works. But am glad I could do it using the inverter backup.

We all sat down on the floor, both the groups and me. We discussed all the three project topics one by one. The girls were talking much more openly now. We read out all the project work and displayed the project on the floor. Then we collectively decided who's project work was the best.

In the younger group, both Kusum and Rukhsar. And in the elder group, Nomita's project was the best content wise, while Nomita, Mamta and Aarti, all the three were winners. Babli declared that she was also a winner, because she never thought she would be able to operate a computer. Now she can and she wants to learn more. Everyone clapped happily. Then I gave them feedback forms to fill.

In one of the feedback forms, one girl said, "I am very thankful to FAT for organizing this workshop for us girls. Because nobody thinks for us, nobody feels that we should also learn to use such technical equipments. And because FAT organized this workshop for us, we got a chance to learn to use it."

Day 9 (12th June)

2008-06-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

Last day for the girls to finish their work. And then they can get their work printed out so that they can show it to their family. Some of the girls had told me earlier that when they tell people that they are attending a computer workshop for 10 days the response that comes back is, "What are you going to learn in 10 days? Ha ha ha". So I told the girls that they can carry printouts of their work and show these people.

Everyone completed their work very nicely, with the exception of a few. Divya and Minakshi showed me some karate moves and modeling poses instead :). Sikha dropped out of the workshop. Malar and Sheela made an extra effort to do their project work. They went to a guy near their house who has a laptop and internet connection, with his help they did google search on their topics and wrote down 3 pages each from whatever they found. But alas! What they wrote was not what their topic was. Malar wrote 3 pages on teen pregnancy in Minnesota, and Sheela wrote 3 pages on Technology.

Day 8 (11th June)

2008-06-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

I booked my tickets for Bhopal today, I have to conduct a workshop on website designing for a group of young women who have been training under an NGO called Muskaan. I am glad that all the girls in this group are 16 or above.

Anyway, today the younger girls became artists, they used PAINT to draw and paint. The output was much better then before. And they have good control over the mouse now. Then I showed them how to put their painting in the document they had created before. Then I showed them how to use the scanner. Some of them scanned the photos they had brought.

The elder group is busy in their project work. Sikha is absent again. Malar did not come as well. Mamta is also not here, but she had finished her work yesterday. She will be back only on friday. And that day will be the last day of this workshop.

Day 7 (10th June)

2008-06-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

Doing the same things every afternoon is making me bored. Things are not happening as per my plans, I had planned to show many things. But it does not seem like they will be able to retain all of it if I go as per my plans. So I am having to change my plans.

The second group is more lively for me, though the first group is too naughty and noisy. In the second group, girls are doing their project work very sincerely. Mamta's mother came to check where her daughter is learning the computer. She said Mamta will be missing 2 classes as she has to go somewhere. Babli did not come today, her sister Aarti said she is unwell.

Day 6 (9th June)

2008-06-10T02:00:00.000-07:00

After 2 days break, it seemed the first group of girls (I mean the younger group) has lost track :( They seem to be taking this workshop as a fun way to escape regular boring life and household chores. Boy! It's getting difficult to control a group of young girls jumping around the house, fighting with each other, shouting, dancing around...I had to wear a strict teacher look on my face. It does work well, they become quieter, but they don't learn any faster.

Rukhsar, Kusum and Rabiya are faster learners then the rest. Bhawana can learn fast, but also forgets equally fast. Aachal, Pooja, Divya and Minakshi will need much more practice. Firstly they need to learn the english albhabets and to read and pronounce ehglish words. May be a hindi OS will be easier for them. But on the other hand, they don't even seem to be able to remember simple operations by remembering the positions, colours and shapes of the icons.

I feel the key to teach them using a computer would be regular classes, not a workshop for 10 days. These 10 days definitely will have a huge impact. In many ways...

They got to use the machine regularly
They did most of they things themselves
They got to start and shut down the computers themselves
May be they did not learn to use various software (actually learnt only to use word processor and paint ), but what ever they learnt, they practised it enough and I hope they won't forget very easily
Most importantly they developed confidence that they know how to use the machine

On the other hand, the second group of girls are showing quite interested in learning more. Clearly some are very focused and hardworkers, while some are not. Shikha chooses to miss classes at her own liberty. Sheela is too shy to ask questions when in doubt.

But on an average, they are all doing good. And looking at them makes me feel glad I decided to do this workshop. Also they never forget to tell me everyday by the end of the class how happy they are to have got the chance to attend this workshop.

They are working hard on their project. I have installed Baraha in every computer so that they can type in hindi. That way it will be easier for them to do the project, and their parents and friends will also be able to read their project work.

The group which had "pregnancy at a young age" as their topic came back to me with a problem. "When we asked our parents to help us on this topic, they got angry and said we need not talk about such things since we are too young to talk about these such topics. So how do we get information on this topic?"

We had a long discussion on this issue. We browsed a lot of websites to find out information on this topic and we discussed what might be the reasons behind getting pregnant at a young age, how can pregnancy at a young age affect a young girl's life, how can it be prevented, etc. By the end of the quest, the group unanimously agreed that the biggest reason behind young girls getting pregnant is lack of enough information; elders won't talk about it with us, and our friends know as little as we know. And now we all knew where to get information on anything, if we can't get it otherwise.

Day 5 (6th June)

2008-06-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

The younger group still needs a lot of practice with the mouse and the keyboard. And also they still need to be familiarized with the menus and icons. Since day 1 I have been urging them to read and then click. But they are still not doing that. They would keep the cursor on a particular icons/menu item and ask, "Is this the one? Should I click?". I finally got angry. Now this was the moment I turn into the angry teacher from the loving didi. And viola! This worked! :)

The elder group is learning quite fast. I showed them how to scan images using the scanner. Then each one of them took turns and scanned photos of their parents that they had brought with them. After that an introduction to the Internet. What is the internet? What are websites? Google? How can they be used? And most importantly how can the Internet be of use when you need help and don't know where to go or whom to ask? Using cyber cafe's - the need to produce identity proof, safety tips. Very interesting topic for the girls.

By the end of the session, I told the girls about the next week's task. The 9 girls were divided into 3 groups and each group was given a topic. They have to work in groups and prepare a report on their respective topic. They can search for content or images on the topics from the internet, get them from newspapers or magazines, interview other people and also write their own views. They have to prepare their report in a word processor using the skills they learnt this week. On the last day of the workshop, the project reports will be evaluated on the basis of content, formatting, neatness, and teamwork and the best team will get an award. The girls were very excited to know this. But when I told them the topics, there was confusion for a moment on which one they should select.

The topics were:
a) Dowry system
b) Pregnancy at a young age
c) Girls in technical jobs - why so less?

Day 4 (5th June)

2008-06-06T01:49:00.000-07:00

Nothing special. Just regular class. The younger group learnt how to draw using "Paint". They were very excited about it. About 4 of the 8 girls said painting and drawing is their hobby. 2 of them wanted to become a painter when they grow up :) I also spoke to them about email and showed them their houses/localities in wikimapia.

The elder group decorated the word files they had created the previous day using different formatting tools, inserted page borders and cliparts. Sikha could not come in the last class, so she had to catch up with the rest of the girls. All in all, this group is showing good improvement. Manisha is a bit disappointed. She already knows all that I am teaching in this workshop and wants to learn making powerpoint presentations and html coding. But I am not able to help her learn these, firstly becausewe don't have any free computer, secondly I don't have the time.

Day 3 (4th June)

2008-06-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

I planned to show a bit of formatting in word processor on the third day. But the first group, which is the group of the younger girls, had already forgotten what they did the previous day. So I had to make them do the same exercise again, create a folder, create a new document, name it and type in it. The day before I had asked them to do a small homework, write down 10 lines about your mother and father and bring it here, then type it in the word document you create. I had asked the girls repeatedly to do it on their own so that it gives me an idea of how much English they know. I was surprised to see the homework. Some of them did not even recognize English alphabets, and they are in class 6th, 7th and 8th. Besides having a subject on English Literature, their maths, science and computer books are in English.

For a moment I thought I made a mistake by not getting an OS in Hindi. But then I realized, the computers in their schools don't have a Hindi OS as well. As a matter of fact, we hardly see a computer running on Hindi OS. So that may be a problem rather then a solution.

I tried to make them read the menu items and understand what they are doing. But they tend to go by the color, shape, size and position of the icons. This process will take time. Familiarizing them with the menu items and icons and what they do will need lot of time.

The second group was much faster. They did their homework as well, and I was relieved that at least they can form simple sentences, even though with lots of grammatical mistakes. But the disappointment was power failure. Still I managed to show then text formatting in word processor, inserting images, backgrounds, borders...

Like the previous 2 days, Malar and Saraswati were late again. After all they have to finish their work in 6 to 8 households before coming. Malar did not do her homework. Quite understandable - starting from home at 7 in the morning and reaching at 9 in the evening, tired and all energy drained out, where is the time or energy to study.

But I was surprised when I went through Saraswati's home work. Such good English with no grammar mistake at all, and the words she used, the complex sentence formations; clearly she good in her studies. After working from morning 6 to evening 6 in 8 houses, she hardly gets the time to study .

Day 2 of the workshop (3rd June)

2008-06-04T00:15:00.000-07:00

The second day was even more exciting. Manisha, a student of class 12, seemed to know how to operate a computer while the rest of the girls did not know. Most of the girls had actually touched a computer for the first time! Even though they have a subject on computers in their school curriculum!! So I asked Manisha to help me to guide the other girls, and then I would show her some other stuff like blogging, socializing sites, etc. She agreed. So she came a bit early . And I showed her some tips on word processing, because that's what I planned to show the rest of the girls.

The first group arrived at 2pm. We did a revision of what we did the previous day. Then I spoke about what an Operating System is, a bit about Windows and Linux, about piracy. Sadly, we have to use windows for this workshop, because that is what their school computers have. If they learn Linux here, then they won't feel confident enough to use any other computer, because all of the computers out there have Windows, pirated of course!

Then I showed them how to create a folder, create a word file, name it by their name and save it, and then type in it. No formatting as of now.

Then each of them tried their hands on it themselves. First hurdle, controlling the mouse. Second, finding the right keys. Some girls learned faster then others. Manisha was helping them, but it seemed like she needed a bit of training to be a good trainer:) My special attention was on Aachal. She is the quietest in the group, would never speak loud enough to be audible to even the girl next to her, and the other girls would very happily boss her. When everyone else finished their tasks and sat down to write the feedback notes (I plan to make them write one every day), Aachal seemed happy to work on the computer all alone with no one around to tell her that she was not doing it right. Slow, but she did complete her task.

The second group was much faster. They were interested in knowing more about the Windows - Linux philosophy. Other then doing what the first group did, they also learned to use the dictionary help of word processors, they tried their hands on both Windows and Linux. We also spoke about what we are going to do in the coming days and the discussion strayed.... to early marriage of girls, girls making mistakes because they don't understand their own bodies, being shy to talk about mensuration, pregnancy, sex...It was a lively discussion.

Before leaving Aarti asked, "Didi, can't you make this class regular instead of just 10 days?"

I said," I most definitely want to. But I can't, I don't have computers, space or money."

"Can you make it 20 days instead of 10?"

"I manage a lot of things alone, and I have to get back to my other work, I don't have help."

....

Day 1 of workshop (2 June 2008)

2008-06-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

2 days of the workshop are over. Today is the third day. And I am totally enjoying myself :)

I was surprised on the first day, about 2 things. First, when H and I were waiting for the girls to come. It was 3 already and none showed up till then. I was nervous, what if no one turns up? 9 girls had registered their names, but what if they have changed their minds?

By 3.25pm, the house was full. 16 girls in total! I did not know what to do. We had not prepared for 16 girls, so we do not have enough computers, or space! But I did not want to disappoint them and send them back. So we started our first class anyway.

Second thing that surprised me, at around 4.15 pm Saraswati enters the room! "Saraswati??? Are you just visiting after a long time or have you actually come to attend the workshop?" "I will attend the workshop bhabi, but I can come only at 4" she said. I was surprised but so happy at the same time! "We will talk later in details" I said, and we continued with our workshop. Next one and a half hour I could see how happy the three sisters were, learning together, and of course, because they were meeting after so many days. Saraswati, Malar and Sheela. Narima would also have been here, but she got a temporary job as office assistant in an NGO and I told her to take it. Its a good break for her, as her first office experience.

H left in about an hour. The first day I only introduced the girls to what is technology, what is a computer, its parts, difference between software and hardware, connecting the different parts of the computer, booting up and shutting down. Then I divided the 17 girls in groups of 2, of course 1 girl was left alone, and then let them all connect the computer one by one, start it, and then shut down. They enjoyed it a lot.

By the end of the first day, I divided the girls in 2 groups, one group between the age group 12 to 15 (Class 6 to 8) and other group between the age group 16 to 20 (Class 9 t 12 and 2 girls who had discontinued studies after 10th). Instead of 1 session of 2 hours a day I decided to do 2 sessions of 2 hrs each for 2 groups. That way we can manage with the computers we have :)

Happy or sad???

2008-05-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

I am happy to see the changes in Narima over the last 4 months. And specially in the last one month. She is more confident, determined, does not burst into tears easily, is studying hard and can remember things. And ah! Most importantly, she does not see ghosts in the house any more!

I know I have been hard on her initially, but I just hated the "abla nari" attitude she had. "Someone help me, someone save me, because I cannot take care of myself." That was the message that she sent, and that really pissed me. She had to understand that she has to help herself else none will help her. I have been tough but I am glad that brought some positive changes in her. She even went to the police station alone once.

I am surprised how ignorant they are. They don't know anything about their rights as women. "Humare Tamil logo me to aisa hi hota hai." This is inspite of the women empowerment drives going on all around the country, by NGOs, activist, and the Government. The regular advertisements that come on TV, do not marry off your daughter at a young age, do not give/take dowry, violence against women is a crime....even though TV watching is a popular timepass and almost everyone has a TV nowadays, I don't understand why these messages don't get across to people.

2 days back Narima told me Sashi was in the hospital in a critical condition. "Why, How ?" I asked. Her husband and mother-in-law gave her a medicine to take, because of which her 6 month old pregnancy was terminated. They did this because they knew it was a girl. And Sashi did not even know that she was still pregnant. She thought her attempt to abort in the local hospital during the 4th week of pregnancy was successful. And ask me how old is Sashi? 17 yrs old, appeared higher secondary this year as an open student, and a mother of a 1 year old girl. And we say sex education is not required in our schools?????

beginning of a new project...

2008-05-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

Today Sheela took me to the basti nearby. She just would not walk with me. I had to keep running after her or shout "Sheela wait!" I wonder, is it because she is shy, or is it some sort of inferiority complex, that she would not sit with me, talk to me, or eat anything that I offer?

It was not very difficult to talk to the girls in the basti about the computer workshop. Their moms seemed very happy to know about an all girls computer workshop which is cost free! I am sure I will easily get 10 girls for this pilot project. I have asked them to come and register their names before the workshop starts, that's 1st June. Most of the girls and their mothers seemed enthusiastic.

The challenge lies in the workshop itself, the content and the after effect. How well the girls grasp what I show, and most importantly, how well they are able to retain it. A workshop of 10 days and then back to old life will not help.

Are porn videos creating beasts?

2007-12-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

Day 7. Let's talk about sex. Hmmmmnn......

When I think of sex, the first thing that comes to my mind is rape.

Wait a second. Why rape? Why not fun, pleasure, ecstasy, orgasm.........or may be love? Is it normal? Am I normal? I am not a rape victim, then why can't I think of something good about sex first? I ask myself these questions all the time.

In my opinion all women are victims of rape, even if not all of us have actually been raped. Wherever we are, whatever we do, we constantly have to be on alert, protecting ourselves from some sort of sexual assault. Be it in a dark street in late hours, in a crowded room right in the middle of the day or a lazy evening in our own house. Every day there is at least one rape news in the newspaper.

My topic today is not just rape, but marital rape. Marital rape has not yet been declared as a punishable crime except in a few countries, but it is the most common form of rape. Marriage sort of gives the license to rape, and we women ourselves find it difficult to say that we have been raped by our husband. "Sex, by definition, requires consent. Without consent, sex is, by definition, rape."

I particularly hate the concept of "Suhaag Raat", the first night after marriage according to Indian customs. Two strangers get married after their families arrange it for them. They don't know if they will fall in love with each other or start hating each after they start to live together. The marriage gets over and then comes the much awaited Suhaag Raat. The groom's friends prepare him for the night...with some porn videos, some alcohol, teasing him, challenging him, aapni mardangi dikha dena (show your wife your manhood), etc. The bride, who is expected to be a virgin, and usually is a virgin, waits in her room, nervous, terrified, happy, shy, all mixed emotions. Then all of a sudden a drunk man appears in her room and does some things that leave her in pain, anger and agony. Seems like a scene from a Bollywood movie? Nah...this happens in real life too. Believe me.

What I find common is that most girls have never watched a porn movie before marriage while their husbands had. Their only source of information about sex, right or wrong, is from their married girl friends. So while the grooms are all aroused and out of their senses because of watching too much porn, the brides don't have enough information and are scared. Perhaps watching a few porn films before marriage would have mentally prepared them for the night. Am I sounding like I am advocating watching porn films for unmarried virgin girls? Or may be no porn watching for the men. Hmmmmnnnn....I don't know. I don't think the question is to watch porn or not to watch porn. I think the problem lies in the way these porn films are made. Most porn films are made for male audiences and do not care about the woman's enjoyment. Specially the Indian porn films which are readily available in Indian markets. They show the man as a sex king ruling over the woman who has no other choice then follow her master's orders. And why wouldn't they show that, they are probably made by forcing the women to have sex in front of the camera. Making porn films is not legal in India and no women will willingly work for a porn movie and call herself a porn star. Watching this kind of porn stuff will only create beasts, who think that they own their wife's bodies.

technorati tags: takebackthetech

Beware of online predators!

2007-11-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

Phishing, or password theft. Now why is it so important to protect your password? Why is it such a huge concern amongst Internet users after all? Well, ask me. I am a live victim of a password theft that completely changed my life, left it so shattered that it took me years to recover from it. I lost 2 years of my college, which of course meant my technical career did not take off well. I drifted even farther away from my family, who were anyway not very close. My parents thought their little girl had gone the wrong way and lost hope that she would ever come to the right path. I lost my best friends. I was cheated of a huge sum of money, which I had borrowed from different people. That means I had the huge burden on me to earn that money and return it. I had to sell my computer, work after college, save every bit of my pocket money, stay hungry if I happened to miss my meal in the hostel mess, could not buy a single piece of new clothing even if my clothes were too shabby. In addition to all these, I was left emotionally completely drained.

Yes, all this happened because I did not protect the password to my email account.

It was a new thing for me, this IT thing. I was a young college girl in a small town where internet and email was a new craze. I was not aware about the predators in this new virtual world.

There are a lot of dangers and predators that lurk online. We need to be aware of such dangers. We need to realize that it's not necessary such predators are people living very far away and can never hurt us in the real world. These can be people living very near us who can very easily use our personal information in any which way they want. And even if they are not very near us, they can still hurt us. Such predators are extremely sophisticated and patient. They will take years to develop a relationship of trust with a victim and "groom" them. They will wait for the right time to attack.

How to protect ourselves from such predators? Well, protect your passwords and be careful while making friends in the net. It's that simple.

technorati tags: takebackthetech

Sexual harassment in work spaces.

2007-11-28T20:56:00.000-08:00

In 1997 the Supreme Court in its Vishakha judgement made a Complaints Cell Against Sexual Harassment mandatory in all workplaces. However, even after 10 years only a few workplaces have actually implemented it and most women are still ignorant of the judgement. Women in technical fields usually have to work in mainly male dominated work spaces and experience a lot of sexual harassment and discrimination in work spaces. Most women in technical fields will agree that there is lot of subtle violence in the whole process of learning and then working in technical fields. As such, it becomes very important that we ask for the "Complaints Cell Against Sexual Harassment" to be established in our workplace.

But the problem is most women do not speak out and ask for their rights. And those who do speak up suffer for it. Women who speak up are considered to be trouble makers, make many enemies around them, and finally end up making the workplace hostile for them. I have never worked in predominantly male environment, but this has happened not just once, but many times with me during college. I dared to challenge men who would pass unwelcome comments and eve tease in the name of having fun. I dared to look them in their eyes when they passed a sexual remark while I walked down to the canteen. And as a result, I was considered an immoral girl, was hated by most of the men in the college, and had very few girl friends as well, as girls would rather like to keep away from the trouble maker. I am sure many women out there have similar experiences.

So, should we women keep quiet instead and be in everyones good books? Should we keep out of trouble and live our live as we are told to? Tolerate as much as possible, and when it becomes too difficult to tolerate, quietly chance our job, move to a different place, and start all over again, a peaceful life without any trouble?

Well, I don't think that will help us. Wherever we go, whatever we do, if we don't have the spirit to fight for our rights, we will end up in the same situation again. Whenever we are in any such unpleasant situation, we need to sit down, close our eyes and visualize ourself in our mother's time, grandmother's times. Try to imagine ourself in the situation that they might have lived in as young women, the restrictions that were imposed on them, the freedom they had (or rather they did not have) in making decisions about their own lives. Think about your achievements today, the life you live today, the freedom, dignity and respect you enjoy today, would it have been possible to achieve these in that time? Definitely not. And why has it been possible for you to achieve all this today? Because, some women in that time, in your mother's time, in your grandmother's time, did not quietly tolerate all the discrimination and harassment they faced. They fought back instead, they stood up for their rights, for you to enjoy the status you have today....

So don't keep quiet. Stand up for your rights. Ask for what you deserve. Fight against discrimination. Fight against sexual harassment...Fight..To make lie easier for the future generation...For our daughters and grand daughters.

"Get Up Stand Up, Stand Up For Your Rights"...A Bob Marley song....

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I am so outraged, I can't think of a title.

2007-11-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

Finally I decided I have to start blogging. It's time to let myself free. I can't take it anymore, I can't hold my thoughts anymore. I am totally outraged by things going on around me. Its 12 midnight right now and I am not able to sleep. I am so disturbed by things happening around me that I can't sleep.

Recent violence in Assam, what's disturbing me is not the violence as a whole. After seeing so much violence around me since childhood, I have somehow come to accept that Assamese people kill each other for silliest of reasons, and sometimes for no reason. What is disturbing me is how an innocent woman fell prey to the violence and was stripped and beaten so badly.
A mob of adivasi (tribal) people, mostly students, around 1000, started protesting in the streets of Guwahati demanding reservation of seats for tribal students. Some of them started breaking car glasses, shops, anything they came across as they marched. The police started firing in air to clear the mob. The local people got angry and attacked back. Most of the protesters ran away . Those who could not escape were beaten up badly, about 40 (not sure) died.

One women was stripped and beaten up. Next day the local TV channels show photographs of a local businessman kicking the naked women between her legs. And who clicked these photographs? Other men using their mobile phones.

What kind of men would stand there and get busy clicking photographs of the women while another man is beating up a women after stripping her! I ask, didn't it occur once to them that he should go and save the woman instead? I don't want to get into the details of why the protesters became violent and started to break cars and shops, why the local people started to beat up the protesters. I am sure there is a big story behind all these, may be some dirty political game. As it is coming out now, many of the protesters did not even know why they were there. They had just come to see the Guwahati city. I am just asking one simple question: when one man stripped a woman and violently bashed her up, why was there not a single man who would come forward to protect the women while there were at least one, or may be more men standing with their mobile phones and clicking photos? Had there been no mobile phones in their hands, would they have come forward to help the woman, or stood there enjoying the scene? Of course the photographs they clicked have been broad casted in all major TV channels, newspapers and websites, so sitting thousands of kilometers away we have come to know what happened. But instead of clicking the photos, if they would have just helped the lady, wouldn't that been a greater help, to all of us, to mankind?

Link to the detailed story:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071127/asp/frontpage/story_8597904.asp

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