The Power of STEM: Empowering India’s Rural Women Through Tech
A group of students attend an online coding session at the Sapna Center, a training facility for marginalized women from rural India. [Rishabh Jain/Al Jazeera] On a sunny morning in Kandabari village, located in India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh, a classroom full of students is engrossed in a coding lesson. Among them is 19-year-old Kriti Kumari, one of 31 women enrolled at the Sapna Center. The center provides training for rural women from marginalized backgrounds, requiring them to reside on campus. The year-long program equips women with coding and website design skills, project management techniques, and primary-school-level math education for those aspiring to become teachers. The organization also assists individuals in securing jobs within India’s thriving information technology sector. “If it weren’t for the Sapna Center, I’d likely be married by now, tending to household duties,” revealed Kumari, a native of the central Indian state of Jharkhand, who ha...