IIT-B to empower young homemakers

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has unveiled an initiative, IAmPower, seeking to empower female students, especially those in the age group of 15-19 years, to break stereotypes and start a career in programming, even after marriage.

The organisers have already conducted workshops in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad through which they have encouraged many female students to take up coding and programming regardless of the stream they are currently pursuing. As part of the initiative, the organisers are visiting colleges and sharing information about coding and programming and how the girls can stay home after marriage and make programmes, mobile phone applications or even take up freelance work. The initiative is part of IIT-B’s Techfest programme.

Shivani Chavan from the Metallurgy department, IIT-B agreed that there was an urgent need to break the stereotypes and empower girl students to find alternate ways to put their education to good use even after marriage. “While conducting a workshop in Pune recently, Vibhuti Mehra, a student of electronics and telecommunication thanked us for showing her a way. She feared that after completing the course marriage would signal an end to her aspirations to study further or use her education beneficially. However, after the workshop she said she knew what to do after marriage,” said Ms Chavan.

Speaking about the initiative, Karan Mehta, media coordinator for Techfest, said, “Despite technological advancements, the Indian mindset always assumes that girls must become homemakers after completing their education. He said, “This thought process may not be present in major metropolises, but if we look into smaller towns and cities the mindset is that girls have to get married and take care of home and hearth after graduation.” He added, “The education is of no use to them and hence we thought of finding ways in which the girls could continue using their knowledge even after marriage. IAmPower is the outcome of that intent.”

According to Mr Mehta, during the last two years, Techfest teams had observed in zonal rounds held across India that girls seldom participated in technical events and hence the initiative was begun aimed at showing them such careers that they could pursue after marriage while being homemakers.