Can Technology Battle Patriarchy In India? Decoding 3 Fascinating Initiatives Who Are.

(Homegrown was present at the Dasra Philanthrophy Week where we witnessed a panel discussion titled 'She Will Connect: Closing The Gender Gap for Adolescent girls.' The following article talks about the ideas shared by the panel as well as the work done by some of these organisations.)

"I can be the President Of India"

"Kuch Nahi Hoga India Ka"

"We live in a stratified society where women don't even have spaces for communication"

Population Foundation Of India.

The NFHS survey

I. Change Through Entertainment

Population Foundation Of India was formed in the 1970s by leading industrialists JRD Tata and Dr Bharat Ram to usher family planning in the country through research and demonstration. Since 1990s, the organisation has worked towards population stabilisation and collaborates with central and state governments as well as various local and national NGOs.

Image Source: PFI Brochure

"Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon"

"Real life stories have informed and guided Feroz and PFI in developing the scripts"

Doordarshan has access to nearly 80% of the country

58 million people tuned in to watch the first season

ppi-1

Integrated Voice Response Systems

Positive Deviance

II. The Voice Of Rural India

A Social Tech Company based at IIT Delhi, Gram Vaani operates on the principle of 'Profit With A Conscience'. The initiative founded in 2009 serves as a rural 'social network' of sorts by catering to over 2 million people in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Africa and Namibia and acting as a research and communication tool for NGOs and Corporates.

Gram Vaani

"These are hard-grained inequalities but technology can be a silver bullet. While many mediums have existed before, only technology can destroy the inequality which currently exists"

Image Source: Gram Vaani

Population Foundation of India

III. Technology and Taboos

A simple curiosity about India's difficulty in accepting menstruation led to the creation of Menstrupedia by Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul to tackle of the dearth of conversations surrounding the biological process millions of women go through. Menstrupedia serves as a unique blog and offline comic book and textbook to help spread awareness about menstrual hygiene in India as well as tackle the taboos and restrictions placed on women and adolescent girls.

"Girls can't talk about the natural biological processes they experience. Even their parents act with a bias when they start menstruating,"

Image Source: Trust.org

Menstrupedia

"One of the trending posts on our blog is by a second year law student, a man who uses the title "Ladies, it's unnecessary to hide periods from men,"

"It's a question of one generation. Even if one generation changes, it can destroy the long held myths".

mentru

The Road Ahead

gender inequality

200 million

Intel survey found

lowest

The survey also found that when provided Internet access, 77% of Indian women said that they used it to further their knowledge while 59% used it to search for a job and 32% even earned additional income through it.

Smartphone users by

"Mobile Educational Tool"

"If you can convince someone who doesn't want the soap to buy it, you certainly can promote behaviour change"

To know more about the work done by these organisations, visit the websites below:

Population Foundation Of India

Gram Vaani

Menstrupedia

Words: Devang Pathak

Twitter : @DevangPat

patriarchy