EMK Centre and WID launches ‘Fem tech Challenge 2021’

EMK Centre is arranging a "Femtech Challenge" partnering with Women in Digital (WID) to enhance women's participation in Stem education and career.

The opening ceremony was held yesterday (22 December) online via Zoom, said a press release.  

In the online session, several topics were discussed about the situation of female participation in IT sectors, the scarcity of knowledge of female students as well as teachers, the obstacles they face, and the way to improve situation worldwide.

As the moderator of this ceremony, Project Manager of WID Farjana Ali welcomed Achia Nila, founder of WID, and Asif Uddin Ahmed, acting director of EMK Centre.

EMK Centre has jointly organised this programme with "Women in Digital"- a platform for women founded by Achia Nila, who is also an alumnus of the US Department of State.

The goal of "Femtech Challenge 2021" is to encourage women to generate ideas, develop digital and online services that provide value for the members of these communities, notes the press release.

Asif Uddin Ahmed said it is difficult that he couldn't find a single female participant in sound engineering and in IT sectors when he conducted research. "It is ironic that only 3% of females have been participating globally in the ICT sector."

"When I looked for the reason I found that in some areas females are told not to study science and math; these subjects are not for them. Only Sri Lanka has an equal participation of men and women in the technological arena," he added.

Asif recommended to promote Stem education among the girls participating in the "She Can STEM" campaign, launched by EMK. Under this campaign, EMK MakerLab is organising competitions and seminars to inspire young women of Bangladesh.

"After seeing overwhelming results of women Techpreneurs EMK Centre has launched the Femtech challenge," he mentioned.

"We have equal opportunities and drawbacks even if 3% women engage in the IT Sector. We need to nurture them specifically from the primary level as it is the root level to be engaged in this technological practice," said Professor Imran Rahman.

According to him, the current generation is more comfortable with technology.

He also added, "We must have an equal contribution of parents and teachers, we should bring changes in the mindset for those learners who have interest in technology. Bangladesh is a safe place, the parents need to be easy on girls, there is no reason to be afraid and parents should not disallow them for anything."

Dr Bikarna Kumar Ghosh said, "If we look from the past, per capita has increased by 5% in the last 12 years. We delivered services of Tk80 crore to villagers through union digital centres. We have sustained a 5% growth rate; Bangladesh has been recognised as a role model."

He further added, "Korea and Singapore have developed gathering manpower and developers from our country but due to a lack of leadership we have not reached our goal as a nation. We are trying to develop the situation as the government has trained 6.5 lakh people for technologies. Hi-Tech Park has invested 700 crore for the IT sector."

Waseqa Ayesha Khan said, "As a developed country, it must have equal participation of men and women in business, healthcare, educational sector and all."

"Dreams need to be shown and need to know the implementation," she added.

"We have been providing Tk100 crore to countless startups. Sixty thousand women in villages have been trained and almost 300 ideas have been identified and have been assisted. To be an expert one does not require academic studies. Startups need to be assisted for the development in the IT Sectors. Coding needs to be trained from the primary level," she suggested.

She said, "I will not give up coding even as a 52 year-old."

"No initiative is applicable without the government's help. Although they make the generation, teachers don't have a clear perception of technologies since the revolution. Female students who really want to work with technologies should be nurtured properly," she remarked.

Professor Imran Rahman, vice chancellor of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), Dr Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, managing director of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority and Waseqa Ayesha Khan, Member of Parliament attended the programme as guests of honour.