Bengaluru Techies Hack Up Support For Girls' Education

A total of 25 techies from Bengaluru took part in a two-day hackathon to develop technology-based solutions to get more girls to study.

The solutions include creating online educational materials, need-based helpline with information on their rights, building capacities of tutors in Kishori Sanghas and linking these groups to assist each other academically, reported TOI.

NPO Women Education Project (WEP) and Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) collaborated to organize this hackathon—Hack4Her event last week. The focus of the event was to provide literacy to the financially disadvantaged group of girls in the country.

The female literacy rate in India is 65.46%, according to the 2011 census, while the world average is 79.7%

"The female literacy rate in India is 65.46%, according to the 2011 census, while the world average is 79.7%. The school dropout rate among girls is as high as 63.5%. This hackathon enabled us to use technology-based innovation to give every girl child her right to education," Suraj Kumar Jana, founder of Opencube Labs and a Hack4Her participant, told TOI.

These tech-based solutions also encouraged skill-building and networking platforms for young girls. And help society break stereotypes and stigmas related to young girls.

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"We plan to create an online platform where girls can learn about subjects such as health, finance, civic and environmental science, among others. The programme would be such that users can log in from any part of the world," Suraj said

"We have come up with a web portal for peer-to-peer skill sharing among women. For example, if a girl has skills in computer programming and wants to learn south Indian cooking, she can learn it from her peers while sharing her knowledge with them," he added.

The digital world has opened up ways to educate and excel in different sectors. Today, one can go online and learn about cultures, jobs and become a professional with help available on internet. And all this is possible because people like these techies thought about social responsibility and created products and services to help others, especially the cause of women’s empowerment.