Wikimedia Blog/Drafts/Indian WikiWomen celebrate Women's History Month
Indian WikiWomen Celebrate Women's History Month
March 2013 was a busy month for women Wikimedians in India, who conducted various events ranging from edit-a-thons to workshops to celebrate the presence of women in Wikimedia projects. The month long celebrations were held in different parts of India and online. The women Wikimedians, members of the Wikimedia India Chapter and the Access to Knowledge Team brainstormed about the possible events, which could be conducted to encourage the participation of women in Wikimedia and to increase the quality of articles related to Indian women in Wikipedias in English and the Indian languages. It was decided that workshops and meetups would be conducted in various Indian cities, in addition to online edit-a-thons.
A co-ordination page was created on English Wikipedia where a list of suggested articles was put up. People were invited to join the edit-a-thon by spreading the word on mailing lists, social media networks and blogs. The Times of India published an article about the event which attracted many newbies to participate in the event. Separate pages were created for the offline events and a summary of the events was added to the main page. The participants of the edit-a-thon were required to sign up on the co-ordination page. The details and current status of Women's History Month events happening in various Indian language Wikipedias were also added to the page.
The inaugural event happened on the International Women's day in Nirmala Institute of Technology, Goa. Out of the 100 participants who attended the event, 90 were females. The workshop oversaw the creation of new articles by the new members and talks by veteran Wikimedians Rohini and Nitika. The event also set off the two day long online edit-a-thon in which fourteen editors participated. Among those who participated in the program were homemakers, students and professionals. Rohini was elected as the Chairperson of the special interest group (SIG)for Gendergap exactly on the day of the workshop. She plans to conduct more workshops for women in future.
The inaugural event was followed by a series of events which occurred in two venues in Bengaluru and one in Ernakulam. The workshops held in Bengaluru were led by experienced Wikimedians Pavithra and Nikita Belavate. The workshop also served as a platform for the meetup of all editors living in and around Bengaluru. The Ernakulam event was aimed at increasing the participation of women in Malayalam language Wikipedia and was led by Malayalam Wikimedian Ditty Mathew. A total of around 40 women participated in the three edit-a-thons. A Wikipedia academy with 9 participants was conducted in Hyderabad. Led by Anupama Srinivas, the last of all events took place on 30 March 2012 in Chennai. For Nikita, who led the Bangalore event, watching the exuberance-filled eyes of women-participants when they could edit and see their edits going live was a fulfilling experience. "This year's Women's History month makes me once again believe in the power of women and honing it by empowering them, Wikiwomenising them", says Nikita.
Vishnu Vardhan, the program Director of the Access to Knowledge Team, was with the WikiWomen throughout the event, cross-connecting people, planning events and urging them to contribute. He encouraged his mother, wife and female cousins to write on Wikipedia. "I wish more of us take the initiative of involving the Women in our life to share their Knowledge on Wikipedia and truly make the Wikipedias the sum of all HUMAN knowledge", he writes. Harriet, one of the key organizers of the women's day events, believes that Indian Wikimedia community has gained a large momentum in favour of bridging the gender gap because of this event. She urges the Indian community to follow up on this momentum to increase the participation of women in the Wikimedia movement. Though she could not attend the events in person, she ensured her participation in the edit-a-thon by arranging the logistics, monitoring the coordination page and suggesting changes.
The workshop had good participation from men. Among the 14 participants who signed up on English Wikipedia, 5 were men. In Malayalam Wikipedia, 18 out of the 26 participants who signed up for the online edit-a-thon were men.Dileep Unnikrishan, a male participant of the edit-a-thon and a fan of Wikipedia, participated in the Ernakulam event because he was curious to find out how Wikipedia works. With other women participants, he edited 3 articles and found it exciting to 'be a part of the movement that has brought about a knowledge revolution in the world'. " The best thing I noticed about wiki(pedia) is that it has a peer to peer way of organization which makes it warm and welcoming to newbies like me," says Dileep.
The Indian wikiwomen are planning to conduct similar events in future to increase the participation of women in Wikipedia and its sister projects. They are hopeful about bridging the gender gap in the Indian Wikimedia community by conducting outreach programs, increasing awareness about free knowledge programs among women and conducting action-oriented events targeting women.