PEAKS Academy in association with Prayaana organized a Virtual Event, on the occasion of the International Girls in ICT Day 2022, held on 28th April 2022. The 2-hour event brought together a group of highly eminent speakers from across the globe, from various sectors, all of whom are diligently working towards gender equality, the inclusion of girls, cyber safety, and girls’ education. The event was live-streamed on the Social Media Handles and YouTube channels of Prayaana and PEAKS Academy.
ICT stands for Information and Communications Technologies. It is relevant in every aspect of our daily life and activities. So, it was appropriate that ICT was used to celebrate the day and virtually reach out to hundreds of girls from across the world!
The Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of April every year, in over 150 countries around the world. Girls often face many gender and societal stereotypes, in education and careers specifically in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics sectors i.e., STEM. This observance aims to provide girls with the essential foundation of confidence, courage, and support to fight these stereotypes, overcome the challenges and barriers they face every day, and take a more proactive approach to fulfil their aspirations in ICT and STEM careers.
The Keynote Speech was delivered by Dr. Chandra Vadhana R., Founder & CEO of Prayaana and PEAKS Academy. She introduced Sustainable Development Goal No.5 “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” and how technology can Promote the empowerment of women. Dr. Chandra stressed the importance of providing access and equal opportunities to girls to enter into tech sectors and the need for bringing women back into the workforce to achieve gender equality. She also talked about how Prayaana’s various digital initiatives – all of which are led by strong women leaders, efficiently utilize ICT and Technology, towards achieving the goal of empowering one million women by 2030.
The theme for this year’s Girls in ICT day is Access & Safety. For girls and young women to thrive in STEM careers, they need safe and reliable access to the internet and digital tools. Our Chief Speaker Mr. Georgie Kurien, Honorary Commander of Kerala Police Cyberdome, talked about “Privacy in the Digital Era”. He explained how privacy is being violated by companies, and how the data that we share on the Internet is being sold and used by companies. He also explained online safety, shared the best practices to be followed, and sensitized the girls & women about how to safeguard their information on digital mediums.
Women constitute 49.58% of the world’s population; which means half of the world’s population is female. There is a potential withinevery girl that is waiting to be unleashed. Ms. SANDRA ANNE GHOUSE, an International Trainer from Malaysia, gave an inspiring session to the girls about “Bridging the gap between where you see yourself and the limitless possibilities of where you can be”. Ms. Sandra is the Founder of 3E Training & Education, and she explained about how the 3E i.e Engagement, Enhancement, and Empowerment can be practiced to achieve their aspirations by tackling their fears, experimenting and learning & increasing their knowledge.
Forbes magazine has mentioned that a critical tool for identifying and predicting threats in cybersecurity in the future, will be Artificial Intelligence and machine learning . The field of artificial intelligence has a tremendous career outlook. Mr. Ali Osman Toprak, a Growth Marketing Specialist from Turkey talked about the importance of women inclusion in ICT and how it can foster gender equality. Ali presented the gender pay gap in various countries, the various factors contributing to the gap and listed the solutions. He talked about the 10million.AI project at Global AI Hub, which aims to promote free education for 10 million men and women in the fields of Machine Learning, Deep Learning, AI, and Robotics.
It is a sad truth that, worldwide, women are less likely to know how to operate a smartphone, navigate the internet, use social media and understand how to safeguard information in digital mediums. But there are women who have overcome barriers and are in high profile positions in tech companies across the world. Ms. Betelihem Girma, an ICT Tech Leader from Ethiopia, shared her journey of pursuing a Computer Science Education and Tech Career. It was surprising to hear that women everywhere face the same prejudices like being questioned for their abilities in technical jobs and for taking up senior positions in the technical domains. .
A surprising reality is that only about 20% of the global workforce is female. Another unpleasant fact is that 71% of working women in India are engaged in activities that are of low productivity. Ms. Bindu Ashok Krishnan, Director of Human Resources & administration at Opsyn Technologies talked about the lack of women representation in senior leadership roles. She also stressed on why girls and women need to pursue STEM and enter the technical domain. She advised that the awareness about gender equality should be practiced from the budding stages, and how parents and teachers can groom the younger generation to grow up learning that women have equal rights as men.
Today’s youngsters are very much ahead in terms of using technology. To motivate girls to come forward for ICT opportunities, we invited the youngest employee in Peaks Academy, Ms. Joshna Kokkirala to speak at the event. A BBA student from Hyderabad, Joshna is a Trainer and Manager for Virtual Events, and she shared her perspectives on the Internet of Things and how girls can utilize the powers of ICT to achieve many of their dreams.
The Covid pandemic has created a paradigm shift in our lifestyles – most notably in the field of education. It has become imperative for schools and the education system to incorporate ICT in their learning process and utilize it for addressing education challenges. Ms. Jhinuk Duttaray, a Mentor to CBSE teachers and Vice Principal of ODM Schools, gave a speech on how teachers and parents can empower girls to follow their aspirations. She pointed out the grim reality of societal expectations which are the biggest challenges women face in taking up a career or higher studies in India. She encouraged girls to believe in themselves and focus on their interests, so that there will be a lot more women scientists and a lot more women in STEM and ICT in the future. Quoting Jhinuk’s words, “Opportunity & Work environment – You got to seek it, you got to change it and you got to get it”
The session was efficiently moderated by Ms. Deepa Perumal, COO – PEAKS Academy. She kept the session informative by sharing various relevant statistics and findings. She talked about some of the biases she faces for being a Social Media Content Creator for topics that are perceived as male-dominated. She also shared her pride in being a “Woman in ICT” who has spent more than 25 years of her life studying and working in Computer Engineering, Software and IT Domains.
The event came to a close with a quote from the website womenchangeworlds.org.
“Entering technology today is an opportunity for adolescent girls and young women to make large strides toward equality, to decrease the gender gap in pay, and to attain leadership positions.”
Let us dispel the myth that women cannot take up “tech-heavy” jobs !
Let us women take our rightful place in technology and science and, of course, in ICT.!
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