The world's female technology community (Part 2): Caste system and growth under the digital twilight

At the first stop of our journey to explore women’s technology, we went to Africa, the cradle of mankind, where we witnessed the double life of African women and saw the flourishing digital flowers that grew on this barren land.

For this stop, we chose to come to India, a magical country with mysterious religious culture that is deeply embedded in all aspects of life and production. The magic of India lies in its ability to accept extreme inequality - the endless division of society by the caste system, poverty and resource inequality under multi-religious and multi-cultural backgrounds. The talents nurtured by this complex social environment are becoming more and more popular in Silicon Valley, the light of technology. In Silicon Valley, more than 30% of engineers are of Indian descent, and 7% of CEOs of Silicon Valley's high-tech companies are of Indian descent, including technology giants such as Google and Microsoft.

Behind these uneven developments, when we talk about Indian digital technology and the Internet, the first image that comes to mind is Indian men, and the image of women automatically disappears. Where did the missing women go? What has this ancient country done in the digital wave? What changes have occurred in the growth and situation of Indian women in science and technology? In this stop, we will explore the collision between India's digital civilization and traditional culture, and see what flowers will bloom in Indian women's science and technology watered by the Ganges.

A glimmer of light is flashing in the wave of technology

When talking about India, the first images that come to our mind are the passionate Indian-style dances, various statues with rich religious connotations, devout believers washing their sins in the water of the Ganges, and the caste system with clear class divisions.

India's caste system originated from Hinduism, which has existed for more than 3,000 years. Hinduism is also the religion with the largest population in India, accounting for about 80%. Every religious citizen is branded with the strictest racial label because of his blood after birth. This label is also a symbol of identity that accompanies Indians throughout their lives.

Indians are divided into four classes according to caste. The social status and resources enjoyed by people at the bottom are far inferior to those at the higher levels. In traditional Indian culture, women are degraded, trampled on, and ravaged. Women never have most rights. If they are born in a poor family, they basically enter a hell mode of survival.

The deep-rooted religious culture and caste system are deeply rooted in the bones and blood of Indians. They are the creed and the mountain that imprisons class mobility. This also lays the foundation for the complex and difficult survival and development of women in this country.

In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Modi proposed to bring the entire India into the Internet world. "Digital India" is a future campaign proposed by the Modi government, which aims to use digital technology to empower all aspects of economic production, such as digital education, digital shopping, the construction of communication infrastructure, and improving the "digital literacy" of Indian citizens.

Thanks to the guidance and support at the national strategic level, smartphones and the Internet are widely used in first-tier cities in India, such as Mumbai and New Delhi, and users are also very mature. However, these users cannot represent all Indian people. India's digital infrastructure has obvious regional differences, urban-rural differences, and gender differences.

As of 2019, India's rural population accounted for 66%, and the Internet density in rural areas was 25.3%; the urban population accounted for 34%, and the Internet density was 97.9%. According to a BBC report, in some underdeveloped rural areas, women are even restricted from accessing mobile Internet devices. A 2019 GSMA report pointed out that only 16% of India's mobile Internet users are women. Overall, gender inequality in India's digital advancement is very obvious.

Indian women who use smartphones and can be found on the Internet are mainly high-caste urban women from wealthy families. The overall opportunities and proportion of women using digital technology are much lower than those of men.

Policy advocacy cannot defeat social reality. The division between religion and caste system has made the goal of "Digital India" - to benefit all Indian citizens - a fig leaf torn off in the contradictions and divisions, revealing the dark corners where light cannot reach: in some underdeveloped areas, even if there are Internet facilities, the poor and women cannot access the Internet, and are not even allowed to access it.

Open Google search, and you will find that behind all the negative reports about Indian women are the realities of their difficult lives. According to research institutes, the proportion of working women in India is relatively low, only 10%. Driven by the wave of digitalization, many women have also faced reality head-on and started to move from home to the workplace. Driven by policies and the labor market, companies have also begun to hire women.

Despite such a harsh living environment, Indian women have begun to actively participate in modernization and embrace digital technology and the Internet, using technology as one of the main tools to change reality.

Advancing between social discipline and policy advancement

How do Indian women use digital technology and policies to participate in technological entrepreneurship and innovation?

1. Science and technology policies come first to preserve the light of science and technology. The Indian government launched the Women Scientists Scheme (WOS) in 2002-2003 and has been running it ever since. The Women Scientists Scheme provides Indian women scientists with job opportunities as grassroots scientists and eventually opens up new ways for them to obtain permanent positions in the field of science and technology.

This program has played a key role in retaining women in science and technology in India, not only preventing the loss of female scientific and technological talents, but also providing them with training and employment opportunities. During India's 11th Five-Year Plan, a total of 733 women successfully obtained WOS funding. The latest data from the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology in 2015-2016 showed that with the help of the WOS-A award, about 40% of female scientists obtained a doctorate degree. On average, the results of these projects have enabled female scientific and technological talents to publish more than 500 papers in major journals. At the same time, during this period, 30% of the winners of these projects obtained stable positions and restarted their scientific and technological careers.

In terms of entrepreneurship and innovation, the WOS program also provides relevant training courses for self-employed female scientists to help them start their own businesses. Xeler8, an Indian venture capital database, once released a research report pointing out that in 2016, a total of 670 startups were established in India, of which 3% were founded by women. Entrepreneurs are also paying more and more attention to the needs of the female group, such as POPxo, a startup media targeting women as the user group; Wooplr, a women's fashion platform; Maya, an Indian "beautiful grapefruit" that cares about women's "period"; Celes Care, a women's health service platform, etc.

2. Real money to increase the possibility of entrepreneurship. With the continuous voice and rising consumer power, the government has realized the importance of women's power. The "Startup India" and "India Rising" programs promoted by the central government also provide low-interest loans of 1 million to 10 million rupees for female entrepreneurs. The Minister of IT of Karnataka, India, established a $1.4 million fund to promote female entrepreneurship. The Indian Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises has launched a trade-related training and consulting program specifically for female entrepreneurs.

The Indian government has begun to build and launch policies to protect and support women in science and technology. With the foundation of the basic infrastructure, Indian women in science and technology have begun to transform. Indian women are using their own power to help make society a better place.

In the financial field, Riddhi Mittal, who graduated from Stanford, returned to his hometown to found Finomena. Seeing the difficulty of young Indians in getting loans for entrepreneurship, he aimed to solve the credit problems of young people by using big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Riddhi Mittal gave up the excellent job opportunities in Silicon Valley to open up the possibility of the first start-up capital for more young people.

(Flyrobe APP interface)

In the field of life services, retail and e-commerce have become important battlefields for female entrepreneurs to engage in. Accessories, clothing and electronic products are the three most popular online shopping products for Indians, and accessories and clothing are the strengths of women. Shreya Mishra is the co-founder of Flyrobe, an Indian fashion rental platform. Founded in 2015, Flyrobe is committed to developing the second-hand brand, designer brand and clothing rental market, and has now become one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the Indian market. On the Flyrobe platform, users can rent high-end clothing and accessories, and designers will give dressing suggestions. The company completed a US$5.3 million Series A financing led by IDG on August 31, 2016.

Shikha Ahluwalia is one of the founders of fashion retail platform Stalkbuylove. On December 9, 2016, Stalkbuylove announced that it had received $6 million in Series A funding. While the Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart has fashion e-commerce brands Myntra and Jabong (which together account for 70% of the market share), Stalkbuylove has still opened up a market and gained a share in these fiercely competitive markets.

In the medical and scientific fields, there are also female entrepreneurs involved, and these dazzling Indian female entrepreneurs have been successfully selected into the Forbes celebrity list. They are committed to improving the current medical environment, living environment, digital literacy, etc. of the Indian people through science and technology. Meena Ganesh, a well-known Indian female entrepreneur and co-founder of Portea, a home medical service provider, said: "Although the gender imbalance in engineering schools in India has improved, entrepreneurship is still a field that most women are afraid of. In the financial and technological fields, we need more women to participate. If not, those investors will think that women lack knowledge and ability in these industries. This will eventually lead to Indian women losing their voice in the financial and technological industries."

While creating social value, Indian female tech workers also use their influence to speak out and create more space for women to spread value. These women have become role models for breaking shackles and building a new life, and continue to influence more women to actively participate in the field of science and technology. Under the constraints of their own limitations, they find another gap for survival, allowing more light to shine on the female group.

Under the combined influence of multiple factors such as economy, culture, and social customs, India's "digital divide" is difficult to fill in a short period of time, but the power of women has begun to emerge in the decadent Indian culture and has begun to influence things silently.

Challenges, obstacles and multifaceted life

As the least friendly country to women and one of the countries with the most serious threats to women's safety, Indian women also face many challenges in the process of accessing and applying digital technology.

Similar to the situation faced by women in most countries, Indian women also face exploitation in marriage and childbirth. Regardless of whether they participate in the work, women are taught and constrained to take on all tasks such as childbirth and housework after marriage, and have difficulty in obtaining opportunities for freedom of movement, economic income, and continuing education. Once they do something that goes against social customs, such as choosing to escape or divorce after domestic violence, not only will they be overwhelmed by the secular pressure around them, but their own families and children will also be affected. After being branded as not being a good woman, they will really "die in society."

The consequences of single-parent parenting and divorce will all backfire on women. Women will face discrimination and restrictions in employment and survival. The reality of economic poverty drives women back to their homes, creating a vicious cycle of living environment, further limiting women's ability to obtain more economic opportunities, and making it even more hopeless for them to access digital technology. Women's living environment has been compressed to the point of suffocation.

Of course, restrictions and disciplines in marriage are only part of the stumbling blocks for women in embracing technology. There are other reasons that hinder Indian women from integrating into technology.

1. Social and cultural dregs, deprivation of the right to survive. India is the country with the most serious preference for boys over girls in the world. In India's social atmosphere, factors such as female uncleanliness and high dowries have led many Indian families to prefer boys, which is also the source of all suffering. Earlier, the BBC quoted an Indian government report saying that due to the preference for boys over girls, which led to sex-selective abortion and more care for boys, 63 million women "disappeared" from the total population of India.

2. It is difficult to popularize female education. Even if she is lucky enough to be born and survive, the growth experience of an Indian girl is full of risks. There are no good educational conditions for children of school age in India, especially in remote areas with a large population. It is difficult for girls to complete the eight years of statutory education. The literacy rate of Indian women is even less than half, and the literacy rate of women in some remote areas is only 3%. The enrollment rate of children is only 85%, and the higher the grade, the higher the dropout rate. Child marriage is still prevalent in India. According to a national family health survey conducted in the country from 2005 to 2006, 22.6% of women married before the age of 16, 44.5% of women married between the ages of 16 and 17, and 2.6% of women married before the age of 13. Although Indian law prohibits child marriage, the gap between policy and reality is too large and it is useless. Women enter the production stage early and become the main force of fertility and labor.

3. Lack of policies. Even though the government has vigorously promoted the transformation of customs and concepts in recent years, there are still many obstacles in many rural areas of India. Policies lack the perspective of focusing on women and the willingness to support. Neglected groups have no channels to speak out and no possibility to be seen. Although in the past two years, some topics about the situation of women have been hotly discussed due to some influential film and television works and the participation of social figures. But in general, all kinds of basic rights have nothing to do with women, and policies need to pay attention to fairness and resource balance under the gender structure ratio.

Whether it is the inequality of the education system or the restrictions on women in the social system, they have become barriers and microcosms for women to struggle to move forward. Influenced by India's traditional culture and the strict caste system, the multi-religious and multi-ethnic multicultural environment has shaped the Indians' strong adaptability. This is also a necessary skill for many Indians, and it is more vividly reflected in women.

In this culturally divided environment, Indian women have seized the ripples of digital technology and begun to expand their voices and discourse power. With the power of the digital wave, they have ridden the wind and waves and knocked down the restrictions that bind them layer by layer. We have heard more and more voices from women entrepreneurs. With the increasing policy encouragement and the help of external technology companies and institutions, digital technology has begun to empower more women.

In embracing emerging technologies, breaking traditional shackles and creating technological value, Indian women in science and technology have begun to work hard to fill the internal "digital divide". In the transition from survival to development, they have used their glimmers of light to break through the gaps step by step and move towards a digital future of "her power".