From water to women’s security, Dharavi girls create apps to lift their quality of life
The girls, who only learned how to operate a computer in February, made the apps using the MIT App developer. It has a simple drag-and-drop interface to create mobile apps.
MUMBAI: The app is called Paani Hai Jeevan (Water is Life). It requires you to register yourself and check for notifications to know the best time to fetch water from the neighbourhood communal tap. The idea is to cut the long queues and long arguments through a well-organized system to tell someone it's their turn. The app is not live on any app store yet. The three-month-old prototype is being tested and polished by the developers who happen to be a team of three 12- to 13-year-old schoolgirls from Dharavi.
Two more app prototypes have come out of a small room in Asia's largest slum—all three from schoolgirls aged between 10 and 17. The girls, who only learned how to operate a computer in February, made the apps using the MIT App developer. It has a simple drag-and-drop interface to create mobile apps. The girls, who have also come up with a women's security app and a primary school lesson app, say they developed them after a brainstorming session with documentary filmmaker Nawneet Ranjan.
"We put up a chart paper and wrote down all the problems we face every day. Then, for the next three months, we learnt how to use the app maker and made these," says 13-year-old Sapna Krishna Telunga, who along with her friends Roshni Yasin Shaikh and Kiran Verma made the app 'Padhai Hai Mera Hak'.
The app logo was put together on MS-Paint. The app has just three screens, one that displays the English alphabet, one that displays the Hindi one, and another that has a Math sum.
"It also works on simple phones. Our moms never went to school. We can teach them with this," says Shaikh who wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up. Fauzia Aslam Ansari (12), who built the water app with her friends Sheetal Rathore and Sudha Chalwade, says she wants to improve certain features on her app, like notifying others when there's dirty water in the supply. "There are always fights over whose turn it is. This way you will know how long you have to wait, and people won't fight," says Ansari, a Class VIII student who plays football.
Ranjan, the filmmaker who works out of San Francisco and Mumbai, enlisted the help of friends from both cities when he started the project in Dharavi. He got involved when he visited the slum in 2012 for his film 'Dharavi Diaries'. Between getting the girls to meet investors, finding them mentors from the engineering staff of an internet company, and raising funds to turn the small rented room they meet in every afternoon into a full-fledged lab, Ranjan is also prepping them to participate in the 'Technovation' competition next year.
The international competition held in the US invites entries in the form of technology projects from young girls and women from across the world. A selected few make a pitch to international investors in San Francisco and the winners see their projects come to fruition. Ranjan says they initially got older women in the area visiting the "lab" where they could stitch, embroider and design bags. He would help them connect with designers over Skype, who would give them tips.
These women visit the lab even today. The room, which they call 'Technovation Design Studio' also doubles up as an informal tuition centre. Ranjan plans a regional pitch night in Dharavi to raise funds for the girls to be able to continue their app-development. Competing on an international scale, and most possibly against those from the first world with a head start in technological exposure does not weigh on the girls' mind right now. App-making is their idea of fun. "Ye banane mein bahut maza aata hai (this thing is a lot of fun)," is a line that 14-year-old Ansuja Maniwal repeats while showing you the backend program that runs her app. The one she made with her team is one for women's safety called "Women Fight Back". In the league of women's safety apps, this one also sends the user's location with an alert message. An added feature is the "distress call", which lets out a 'scream' on tapping the screen. "It's like a horror film, no?" chuckles Telunga. "When girls come back from classes or late night duty, they get harassed. No one ever calls the police. This can help," says Maniwal, whose app is in the process of going live on Google Play Store.
There are other problems. "Gutters are never clean," says Rani Shaikh. Roshni wants to build an app that can do basic medical diagnostics. "It should have something to contact the municipal doctor directly," she says. Will it? Possibly, if their imaginations run just as wild as they have so far.
Two more app prototypes have come out of a small room in Asia's largest slum—all three from schoolgirls aged between 10 and 17. The girls, who only learned how to operate a computer in February, made the apps using the MIT App developer. It has a simple drag-and-drop interface to create mobile apps. The girls, who have also come up with a women's security app and a primary school lesson app, say they developed them after a brainstorming session with documentary filmmaker Nawneet Ranjan.
"We put up a chart paper and wrote down all the problems we face every day. Then, for the next three months, we learnt how to use the app maker and made these," says 13-year-old Sapna Krishna Telunga, who along with her friends Roshni Yasin Shaikh and Kiran Verma made the app 'Padhai Hai Mera Hak'.
The app logo was put together on MS-Paint. The app has just three screens, one that displays the English alphabet, one that displays the Hindi one, and another that has a Math sum.
"It also works on simple phones. Our moms never went to school. We can teach them with this," says Shaikh who wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up. Fauzia Aslam Ansari (12), who built the water app with her friends Sheetal Rathore and Sudha Chalwade, says she wants to improve certain features on her app, like notifying others when there's dirty water in the supply. "There are always fights over whose turn it is. This way you will know how long you have to wait, and people won't fight," says Ansari, a Class VIII student who plays football.
Ranjan, the filmmaker who works out of San Francisco and Mumbai, enlisted the help of friends from both cities when he started the project in Dharavi. He got involved when he visited the slum in 2012 for his film 'Dharavi Diaries'. Between getting the girls to meet investors, finding them mentors from the engineering staff of an internet company, and raising funds to turn the small rented room they meet in every afternoon into a full-fledged lab, Ranjan is also prepping them to participate in the 'Technovation' competition next year.
The international competition held in the US invites entries in the form of technology projects from young girls and women from across the world. A selected few make a pitch to international investors in San Francisco and the winners see their projects come to fruition. Ranjan says they initially got older women in the area visiting the "lab" where they could stitch, embroider and design bags. He would help them connect with designers over Skype, who would give them tips.
These women visit the lab even today. The room, which they call 'Technovation Design Studio' also doubles up as an informal tuition centre. Ranjan plans a regional pitch night in Dharavi to raise funds for the girls to be able to continue their app-development. Competing on an international scale, and most possibly against those from the first world with a head start in technological exposure does not weigh on the girls' mind right now. App-making is their idea of fun. "Ye banane mein bahut maza aata hai (this thing is a lot of fun)," is a line that 14-year-old Ansuja Maniwal repeats while showing you the backend program that runs her app. The one she made with her team is one for women's safety called "Women Fight Back". In the league of women's safety apps, this one also sends the user's location with an alert message. An added feature is the "distress call", which lets out a 'scream' on tapping the screen. "It's like a horror film, no?" chuckles Telunga. "When girls come back from classes or late night duty, they get harassed. No one ever calls the police. This can help," says Maniwal, whose app is in the process of going live on Google Play Store.
There are other problems. "Gutters are never clean," says Rani Shaikh. Roshni wants to build an app that can do basic medical diagnostics. "It should have something to contact the municipal doctor directly," she says. Will it? Possibly, if their imaginations run just as wild as they have so far.
From water to women’s security, Dharavi girls create apps to lift their quality of life
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
December 21, 2014
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Reviewed by Anonymous
on
December 21, 2014
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