Adding ‘app’eal to Dharavi

The back-alleys of Dharavi — India’s largest slum have so far only been associated with crime, anti-social activities or poverty; but coding Why not, says documentary filmmaker Navneet Ranjan, who, as part of his project Dharavi Diaries has been training teenage girls in the slum aged between 8 — 15, for the past two-and-a-half years in a wide range of fields including designing applications for smartphones.

While software developing is not the first thing that comes to mind when one talks of skill-development for the underprivileged, Navneet’s efforts have gained tremendous traction over the recent past, with their recent app for women safety — Women Fight Back finding a place in Google Playstore.

Telling us how he conceptualised his project, Navneet says, “I founded the platform in 2012 when I was making a documentary on my work in Dharavi. It was received very well both here and abroad and I took it to several places around the world. It was only in 2014 that I decided to step up the efforts and I left my job in the US to come here and work with the children full-time.”

Navneet’s efforts have grown exponentially over the recent past. “When I started out we had 15 children and now we have over 200 children who come to our resource centre on a daily basis. In fact, we are crowd-funding a campaign to help with rehabilitation efforts after the Nayanagar fire and the response has been so good that in just 20 days’ time we have already reached the half-way mark for total funds required,” he explains.

And while it may seem ironic that the same slum, which has had a history of lack of access to education is now being associated with cutting-edge technology, Navneet explains why it makes more sense to initiate them in tech related subjects than in conventional skill-development areas and says, “Technology is a very important asset for problem solving. And if we equip them with the tech-based skills, it can be used to solve almost every problem. The idea I had was to focus on STEAM (Science Tech, Engineering, Arts and Math) fields rather than conventional skill-development because these are the skills that are being sought out today around the world.”

The team, called the #techgirls are already solving their neighbourhoods several long-standing problems. Giving us a few interesting examples of how these children have put their knowledge to good use, Navneet says, “Recently, a part of Dharavi was gutted in a nasty fire and a lot of the children and their families lost their homes. While we are working towards rehabilitating them, as part of the effort, we are also helping the children come up with a simple fire-safety application, which sends out warnings in case a fire erupts. We have a well-equipped resource centre within Dharavi and through this centre we are giving these children access to training content from colleges such as MIT. A number of my friends abroad are also tutoring these children through online mediums. There are a number of simple problems that these kids have solved using technology. A good example is Pani — which is a smartphone app that sends out SMSes to people about when their turn to fill water will come. This has been serious problem since several people; especially women and girls spend hours waiting in lines to fill water.”

But Navneet’s efforts do not end with just equipping these kids with the skills necessary. “The avenues available for these kids are limitless. They study in government schools and don’t have access to facilities and training, which makes them lose the competitive edge over other children. But now, they can even get into big software companies or maybe one day even start their own businesses,” adds Navneet.