Since 1993, Samraksha — a Bangalore-based civil-society organisation — has been working with HIV-impacted communities and those at high risk, including women in sex work. Samraksha's commitment to making communities own and sustain their HIV responses has led to many stories of collective action and empowerment of once-excluded individuals — especially women in sex work. While exploring innovative ways to empower these much-maligned women, Samraksha ventured into Information & Communication Technology (ICT) to draw them out of their cocoons and equip them through technology-aided knowledge and skills.
Samraksha and Mahiti jointly developed a programme called 'Magic Slate' which opened up the magic dome of technology — and a world without borders — to 55 women from northern Karnataka.
Each of these women went through training where she picked up the skills to use a tablet — the 'Magic Slate' — to access and use services on the internet. Mahiti's technology partnership with Samraksha succeeded in empowering women through counselling, literacy, tablet use, and skills in internet and technology-based communication. At the end of the phased training workshops, the women were a changed lot, their self-esteem and confidence at an all-time high.
Seema Devi (name changed), one of the 55 equipped with a tablet and basic IT and leadership skills, shares how adopting technology and learning soft skills changed the quality of her life.
"As women in sex work we were never ever treated as human beings or received with respect. We ourselves had no self-respect and always thought very low about ourselves. This attitude had made us introvert and arrogant. At some point even our family members — our parents and our children — had started avoiding us.
"That is when Samraksha enrolled us in a training workshop to equip us with both soft skills like leadership and communication, and skilful handling of equipment like a tablet. This tablet turned out to be a 'Magic Slate' for us — where we could write our thoughts, communicate with others and explore a whole new world of knowledge, skills and information. With each session and the hands-on learning on the 'Magic Slate', our confidence grew by leaps and bounds. In a span of 18 months we learned 60–70% of basic technology — Google search, sending reports through email, route-map searching. We transferred the skills and knowledge gained to our family members and took photographs during family functions. Supporting our children to do better project reports in the school gave us the most joy.
"To those around us our training in using the tablet, internet and websites was just another occasion to ridicule us, whom they considered illiterate. Their ridicule and harsh comments made us only stronger. The knowledge and skills we gained created an inner strength to understand our roles and responsibilities, the boldness to break our silence, reach out to other women like us to create awareness about rights, and demand them.
"Many who trained with me are now planning for higher education, especially to learn more about technology. Technology showed us the path to gain the knowledge and skills required to become respected and valuable citizens."
Mahiti is proud to have been a technology partner of Samraksha. 'Magic Slate' was as much a learning experience for Mahiti as it was for the women. As a next step, Samraksha and Mahiti are planning to scale up this successful experiment to reach more women like Seema Devi.