Bringing Women from Indian Slums Closer to Digital Knowledge & Trends

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.� – Mahatma Gandhi Learning and education forms an important part of modern world. Right education grooms an individual, gives him access to think logically & factually. Education transforms lives and is at the heart of UNESCO’s mission to build peace, eradicate poverty and drive sustainable development.(1) Today, education has become accessible to a vast population around the world, yet, many are still devoid of this ‘luxury’. Poverty plays an important role in this. Many rural areas are devoid of education. Even in urban areas, slums don’t have education levels up to the mark. As a result people in such areas suffer from unsustainable living. A slum can be defined as ‘A residential area where dwellings are unfit for human habitation by reasons of dilapidation, overcrowding, lack of ventilation or sanitation facility and having drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions’. Around 24% of India lives in slums.(7) Cramped spaces, bad sanitation, garbage and filth are some of the highlights of slums of India. The people residing in these spaces mostly belong to lower income class who make their living by doing odd jobs. Hence, they have limited reach to education. In a deeply patriarchal society such as India, the access of women to various facilities is generally much more limited than men. The situation is particularly worse in educationally backward areas such as slums. Hence women in slums are deprived of many basic necessities. Thus, digital literacy for women can bring a huge change in this space. This paper focuses on analyzing the overall situation and suggesting a way to improve it. A case study has been used as a catalyst to highlight how this goal could be achieved.