In March 2018, IT for Change launched its project Namma Maathu, Namma Jaaga which, when translated, means ‘Our discourse, our space’. The project seeks to address laws and institutions introduced to tackle public and private violence against women which have proved to be ineffective over the years.
…Prakriye - Centre for Community Informatics and Development
Most community based ICTs for Development (ICTD) projects till date have been implants from outside and haven't been shaped or driven by grass-roots NGOs or community-based organisations, such as those of marginalised women's collectives. Our field centre, Prakriye (Centre for Community Informatics and Development), takes a bottom up approach, putting these development actors in the driver's seat of exploring new techno-social possibilities that strengthen and invigorate development, and further women's political empowerment. In particular, Prakriye's quest is to develop contextually appropriate techno-social systems that can strengthen marginalised women's engagement with local governance institutions and systems, from a rights and citizenship based perspective.
Women's Collectives
Prakriye's 7 Internet-enabled information centres, set up in partnership with rural women’s collectives, use a range of digital strategies to expand women's access to public information and welfare schemes, and strengthen their civic leadership. The centres cover 500 women from 80 women's collectives across 40 villages of Mysuru, Karnataka.
Local Governance
With Prakriye's support, in 40 villages of Mysuru district, women's collectives and elected women now work together to ensure that women's shared needs and priorities are addressed by local governments. They leverage community video, mobile-based informational networking and GIS-enabled participatory mapping.
Adolescent Girls
Prakriye has set up 2 digital knowledge hubs that serve as safe learning spaces for adolescent girls of 5 villages in Mysuru district. They serve as nodes for our unique 'critical education for empowerment' programme that uses digital story telling, photo-essays, role-plays,simulation exercises and debates, for strengthening girls' agency, autonomy and leadership.
PROJECTS
With the support of the South Asia Women’s Fund, the Prakriye field centre of IT for Change has been working with 85 adolescent girls in rural Mysore to strengthen their agency, autonomy and leadership through a digitally enabled capacity-building programme, since 2016. This training module effectively combines traditional and technology-mediated learning methodologies such…
IT for Change, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), and Area Networking and Development Initiatives (ANANDI) collaborated in the 'Making Women's Voices and Votes Count', a two-year field project funded by UN Women, between January 2013-June 2015. Under this project,the three organisations with the support of the…
Mahiti Manthana was a joint initiative of Prakriye and Mahila Samakhya Karnataka, undertaken between 2005 and 2009. Since its inception in 2005, the project primarily aimed at exploring the possibilities offered by community informatics practice, for strengthening the empowerment processes of marginalised…