As part of our focus on issues of technology-mediated violence against women, Rohini Lakshané attended two events organised by Facebook in New Delhi:
The Bachchao Project was recently featured in the RightsCon Community voices series: https://www.accessnow.org/community-voices-the-bachchao-project-fights-for-gender-rights-online
28 August 2018 | 2:29 pm | Nikki Gladstone
CC-BY 2018 accessnow.org
The Bachchao Project is a techno-feminist collective working at the intersection of technology and gender rights. Chinmayi S K, a computer science engineer by training, is the founder of the project, which she started in recognition of her own experiences developing and using technologies that do not reflect the needs of women and queer individuals online.
“There has always been a gap between those who produce technology and those who use it,” says Chinmayi. When that gap exists, and technological innovations do not represent or consult users, particularly those from historically marginalized groups, they risk coding existing discriminatory biases into tools that do not serve everyone.
The India-based organization works with what they call “both ends of the spectrum”: technologists and users. Both groups, Chinmayi acknowledges, struggle. Technologists face difficulties understanding the on-the-ground reality of user groups, while users new to technology lack the support needed to navigate these innovations. The Bachchao Project seeks to bridge the two, under the overarching mission of equal rights for women, gender minorities, and LGBTQIA persons.
Since the team is made up of both technologists and human rights defenders, they’re able to deconstruct technological concepts while simultaneously understanding the needs of different communities. They also rely on concerned individuals to build circles of trust within their communities and pave the way for impactful interventions.
Despite this, they face ongoing challenges in the work they do. The tendency for organizations to work in silos makes it difficult for them to get buy-in for an approach that seeks to promote collaboration. In some cases, it can be difficult to get organizations not only to consider seriously principles of diversity and inclusion, but also to integrate them in their work and tools.
For the Bachchao Project, RightsCon is an opportunity to confront those challenges head-on, in a space that thrives because of engagement and strategy building across sectors and disciplines. At RightsCon Toronto, the team released its latest publication, Of Sieges and Shutdowns, a report detailing how unreliable mobile networks and intentional internet shutdowns affect women activists and entrepreneurs in the economically underdeveloped and conflict-ridden state of Manipur, India. The project is a starting point for understanding the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by women in the region.
Learn more about the Bachchao Project on their website or follow them on Twitter, and get in touch directly if you are interested in volunteering or collaborating with The Bachchao Project on one of their initiatives.
Chinmayi S K presented the methodology for the Safe Goa project at the 5th International Conference on Technologies for Development (Tech4Dev 2018) held in Laussane, Switzerland from 27 to 29 June 2018. A working paper titled “Low Technology Participatory Methodologies in Research and Advocacy for Making Cities Safer for Women” authored by Chinmayi S K, Yugendran Muthuvel and Tania Devaiah was submitted for the conference. The final paper is scheduled for release in September 2018.
The conference was organised by the UNESCO Chair in Technologies for Development at the Cooperation & Development Center (CODEV), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
The Bachchao Project, Open Knowledge Belgium and BeCentral partnered to host a hands-on and insightful workshop on July 5 and 6, 2018, called “Building Tech for Diversity and Inclusion”.
The workshop was delivered by Chinmayi S K and was hosted at BeCentral. On July 5 the workshop was open to the general public. The next day it was held exclusively for Open Sumer of Code participants. It was based on the curriculum from the “Manual to build technology for diversity and Inclusion” devised by The Bachchao Project.
The Bachchao Project released version 1.3 of the manual at the workshop.
A pilot study on the safety of women in public spaces in Goa, India
By Chinmayi S K and Tania Devaiah
Women and the streets of Goa (2018) is a preliminary report comprising the findings of the Safe Goa project. Safe Goa is an effort to study the safety of women in public spaces and to advocate for the mitigation of the issues of public safety.
This report draws from the following:
This pilot study emphasizes the lived experiences of women in Panjim and the meaning they ascribe to “safety” with reference to public spaces in Goa.
By Chinmayi S K and Rohini Lakshané
We are releasing one of the datasets from a research project conducted jointly by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India and The Bachchao Project in 2016-17.
This dataset of the different permissions sought by selected “safety applications” available on the Google Play store in India was compiled as a part of the “Evaluating Safety Buttons on Mobile Devices” project in November 2016. A preliminary report on the findings was released at RightsCon in Brussels in 2017:
Blog post corresponding to the release of the report: https://cis-india.org/raw/evaluating-safety-buttons-on-mobile-devices-preview
The dataset has been released under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. All uses of the accompanying data or parts thereof must contain the following attribution: “Data provided by Rohini Lakshané and Chinmayi S K (2018)”. To request a waiver, email the authors: theteam@thebachchaoproject.org. Data are provided AS-IS, without warranty as to accuracy or completeness.
ODS format: Google_Play_Safety_app_permissions_Dataset_June_2018_CIS_The_Bachchao_Project
XLSX format: Google_Play_Safety_app_permissions_Dataset_June_2018_CIS_The_Bachchao_Project
Chinmayi S K was selected as a finalist in the Individual category of the Sandvik India Gender Awards, 2018 for the Safe Goa project, which was conceived and executed as an initiative of The Bachchao Project.
Sandvik India received 384 applications for the award, out of which 129 were long-listed. Subsequently, 24 were selected for the final round across 8 categories. Chinmayi S K was among the top 3 finalists in the Individual category.
The award distribution ceremony was held in Pune on 25th May 2018.
The Prototype Fund, Berlin hosted a “Diversity and Inclusion in Tech” workshop on May 7, 2018. The workshop was held at the Mozilla office in Berlin and delivered by Chinmayi S K, Founder of The Bachchao Project. It was based on the curriculum from the “Manual to build technology for diversity and Inclusion” devised by The Bachchao Project.
Members of The Bachchao Project spoke at five different sessions at RightsCon held in Toronto, Canada from May 16 to 18, 2018.
How unreliable mobile networks and intentional Internet shutdowns affect the lives of women in Manipur
By Chinmayi S K and Rohini Lakshané
Of Sieges and Shutdowns draws upon 16 qualitative interviews and as many first-person accounts to unravel and document how unreliable mobile networks and intentional Internet shutdowns affect the lives of women in Manipur. The Bachchao Project conducted this study in late 2017 in Manipur with the support of Integrated Rural Development Service Organisation (IRDSO).
We invited women entrepreneurs and activists working in different areas of women’s empowerment to participate in this study via in-person interviews and a two-day exploratory workshop. This preliminary study is an attempt to probe their use of information communication technologies (ICTs) in professional and everyday contexts, the impact of Internet access issues on their lives, and their experiences of intentional Internet shutdowns.
![Of Sieges and Shutdowns (2018), research report by The Bachchao Project [PDF]](http://thebachchaoproject.org/wp-content/uploads///Of_Sieges_and_Shutdowns_2018_05_The_Bachchao_Project.pdf-212x300.png)
View a conference handout [PDF] based on the report.
Ninglun Hanghal reviewed the report for GenderIT.org in December 2018: How Internet Shutdowns Affect The Lives of Women in Manipur