Coding has become the newest way in which computers have been used to do good, making it a trend was seen around the world. There are now an estimated 25 million coders across the globe. Coding helps girls to achieve academic achievement and solve problems. The reason it is a journey of great importance is that coding changes lives significantly for women in India. Academic achievement and problem-solving skills are very important, and coding has a direct benefit on increasing both.
By fully understanding an application, girls have a feeling of mastery and confidence in the application. Girls may not see themselves as numerical wizards or necessarily being studying for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) degrees when they are school-aged girls, but coding can make them better at the quantitative subjects required for high-paying jobs in business & technology. The first hurdle is no longer there. Smartphones are ubiquitous and inexpensive, the ways we use them – for financial transactions, networking with friends, entertainment – are familiar. The second hurdle – social acceptance from parents and others – has also gone. You will find many brilliant girls in the programming clubs of Delhi University, and even in the top engineering institutes.
In India, nearly half of all schools do not have toilets for girl students. In some districts of the country, schoolgirls have to travel more than two kilometers to reach the nearest toilet. Girls often drop out of school in their teens because they cannot physically go to school and because they feel ashamed about using open toilets in front of boys. Poonam Bubna is a teacher who’s working hard to change that. She got training at an institute on how to teach coding to rural girls. The way around this problem is obviously to teach programming language to girls from an early age. It’s hard to imagine life without computer science or coding, says Rashmi Sinha who heads the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) in Hyderabad. Women, she says, have traditionally been discouraged from studying technical subjects — mathematics and sciences.
Any woman can do a code, provided you put your mind against it, code is anyone’s game. There are a lot more opportunities for women in this field but there is still a need to change the traditional mindset that coding is only for men. Girls and women in India are unfairly restrained and facing stereotypes. This is especially true with regards to technology. It’s a popular misconception that males are better when it comes to tech jobs. Even though there have been many pro-active campaigns, the only way to bring about awareness is by example- which will help change the narrative we see in front of us.