Empowering the change-makers of Dharavi, one 3D gadget at a time

At a robotics and 3D printing workshop in Dharavi, 14-year-old Deepali Kadam developed a mobile phone application for women's well-being, which boasts of features like call a doctor, message a doctor, seek a counsellor, learn first aid, and get educated on female foeticide and infanticide.

Many learners like her, aged between eight and 16 years, studying in government schools and hailing from slum communities, are enrolled at a two-day workshop that is being conducted by Dharavi Diary, an NGO, and ThinkLABS, a start-up by IITians.

Dharavi Diary runs after school programs where kids learn about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) and clear their concepts of different subjects as per their requirement.

While teenaged Saif Ansari waits for his keychain to be printed, Deepali says that she wants to make a robot that helps combat health issues. Currently at a nascent stage of programming, the kids see many possibilities. "He should be like Bay Max from Big Hero 6," says Deepali, though she is unsure of the amount it will take to build one.

She developed the app with two friends after they saw how people would behave with little girls. "We have seen people dumping their infant girl in the garbage and some have even boiled the foetus and kept it in a jar. All this happens in Dharavi, so we want to educate the community about such things. Girls can do anything if given a chance," says the 14-year-old.

Another group of girls wants to develop a robot that cleans garbage, helps with education and fixes electrical problems. Ansari wants to print show pieces and other utilities which he can sell in his own shop. An FYBMM student, he travels from Govandi to Dharavi to participate in the activities of Dharavi Diary.

Nawneet Ranjan, a representative of the NGO, said that they have been conducting similar workshops with the children and women of Dharavi, to empower them to become change-makers. "We want them to know the possibilities of technology and the internet. They can make their own products through 3D printing, create a robot to clean the gutters instead of manual scavengers. These children have created mobile apps for job searches, cleanliness in their area, freedom from child labour and women's well-being," he informed.

The innovators at ThinkLABS, a sci-tech education provider, too hold such seminars in government and private schools. Conducting a 3D workshop in Dharavi for slum children for the first time, they said they were satisfied with the inquisitive questions that came their way.

Fatema, one of the instructors at the workshop gave examples of the questions, saying: "One of the participant's parents work in the pipe industry. He wanted to know if we could print a pipe. Another asked if this was 3D, what 4D meant. They can make jewellery, fridge magnets, household items and tools that can be used daily."

The software being used in these workshops is a scaled down version of the mechanism used by engineers and architects in their professions. "We are trying to build a curriculum for computer programming in schools.

Children can learn how to develop a hardware board and learn programming and interfacing," said Megha Gupta, from ThinkLABS.