Routinely described as one of the largest slums in the world and the setting for Slumdog Millionaire, Mumbai’s Dharavi has been home to some unlikely innovations in the last two years. They are the handiwork of a group of local teenage girl coders have been making apps to solve their community’s problems.
The girls, aged between eight and sixteen, are part of Dharavi Diary, a slum innovation project in Dharavi’s Naya Nagar neighbourhood, started in 2014 by filmmaker Nawneet Ranjan. Using the open source developing tool MIT App Inventor, the girls have built several mobile apps to tackle everyday problems, including sexual harassment, access to water and education.
