Dharavi's grit-Coming soon to an app store near you

Sapna's hair is neatly parted at the centre, each side braided into a double plait, tightly held in place at the top by red, organza ribbons. The Class 9 student of Mahim's K.J. Khilnani School buries her head into her algebra book as I shoot a question her way. But slowly, she looks up, gets over her shyness and says in a clear, composed voice: "Our app is called, Padhai, mera hak."

Sapna, five other girls, four women and I are sitting in a room, no bigger than 8X10ft, off one of Dharavi's many narrow alleys on the fringes of Mahim, Mumbai. The dimly-lit room, with its sparse furniture, two sewing machines and several hand-drawn posters, forms the epicentre of this motley crowd's universe. It is here that Sapna and 11 of her friends built prototypes of three mobile apps, perhaps the first time that girls from a slum have attempted to wield technology to resolve the sprawling area's nagging problems -- long queues at the water tap that often end in fisticuffs, harassment by boys and illiteracy due to high, school drop-out rates.

It is under the same corrugated roof that illiterate women acquire skills to better their livelihoods. But none of these — the room, the sewing machines, and certainly not the paraphernalia for a technological mash-up — were part of the plan for Nawneet Ranjan. What started as a subject for a documentary film has now become a life project for this 35-year-old.

"I want to empower people through stories, not just make films," says Ranjan. "I believe in making a difference to the subject's life as part of my creative endeavour." His15-minute documentary Dharavi Diary has travelled to film festivals across the US, to London and to the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, picking up laurels for the best student documentary (Tampa International Film Festival) and best short film (Kala Godha) along the way.

Once the documentary was completed in May 2012, Ranjan continued to visit the slum cluster to engage with the people whom he had depicted on reel. "There was a lot of distrust among the people here before I shot the documentary. People in Dharavi knew that they'd been getting a lot of attention after Slumdog Millionaire, but were also conscious of the fact that outsiders were making money out of their problems," says Ranjan, a graduate of Fine Arts from the University of San Francisco. "So after Dharavi Diary, I started asking the people, particularly the women, how they would like to improve their lives, what could they do to increase their incomes."

Gradually the answers poured in. The women, nearly 20 of them, are being taught tailoring, jewellery designing from waste and to use mobile phones for basic tasks such as texting and making calls. Along with the women, most of whom work as domestic staff, Ranjan started teaching their children to use laptops (acquired especially for them after a crowd-sourcing campaign), aimed at making them digitally literate so they have better prospects in the job market.

"Earlier the women would say there's no point in teaching kids but now they are seeing the difference that technology is making," says Ranjan. "We've invited many of our friends, who are writers, fashion designers and scientists to interact with the kids via the internet so theycan ask questions and understand more and more about different professions. The idea is to document this so people from across the world can see the work being done here and replicate it in their own communities."

As the number of girls coming to learn at the Dharavi Diary centre increased, so did the support. Volunteers, including Abhishek Jha, Kunal Kanase, Vidu Chandan, Malavika Tewari, poured in. An Indian-American, Tara Chklovski, co-founder of a US-based non-profit called Iridescent, helped arrange for laptops for the centre. She pitched the idea that Dharavi's girls participate in a contest that involved developing apps that would solve community problems. The free contest, the Global Technology Entrepreneurship Program or simply the Technovation Challenge, was open to women in the ages of 10 to 23, even if they didn't have experience in building apps.
"The girls were very excited about participating," says Ranjan. "The organisers facilitated a 12-week tutorial by the prestigious, Boston-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to get the girls started. Every week, the girls were taught the basics of MIT's open-source, drag-and-drop platform on which they eventually built the prototype apps."

The girls were split into three groups to make three prototype apps that seek to address the issues of water collection, women's security and female education. "We made the apps in three months," says Roshni, another ninth grader. "It was not at all difficult. The drag-and-drop platform made it easy for us to make tweaks. Our parents were very proud of us."

The prototype android apps were well received at the Technovation challenge, but didn't win. The girls, disheartened by the failure, are now looking forward to the apps' tentative release on the android play store, which if things go well, will happen sometime next year. "We are in talks with Intel, and the company is likely to come onboard to make the apps available," says Ranjan.
 

Apps

Paani hai jeevan
water collection
Who
Fauziya Ansari, Fatima Ansari, Sheetal and Sudha (Dharavi Girls)
What
The app aims to regulate the queues at the common water tap in Dharavi. Upon registering on the app, users are sent text message alerts, informing them about their turn at the tap to collect water.
The idea is to prevent the frequent fights and arguments that occur and also to save people's time, otherwise spent waiting in queue. The app's practical value relies upon all the residents coming together to use the app for water collection for it to be meaningful.

Padhai, mera hak
women's education
Who
Roshani Shaikh, Sapna Telunga,
Kiran Verma, Kavita (Rock On Girls)
What
The girls wanted to help those who drop out of school either to look after their younger siblings or are forced into getting married. The app enables self-learning, and focusses on teaching language (English and Hindi) and mathematics skills for everyday interactions.

Women fight back
women's safety
Who
Mahek Shaikh, Ansuja Madival, Rani Shaikh, Kusum Verma (Girls for Change)
What
This app is a GPS-linked tool for girls to send out an SOS when they are being harassed. The SOS can be programmed to reach up to five numbers — so users can adjust the settings to send an alert to their family, friends, peers, local police, community leaders, etc. The message contains the location of the user.

marisha.karwa@dnaindia.net; @MarishaThakur