India’s ‘hackathon for women’ tries to solve issues with technology

Most hackathons bring together software coders, techies or geeks to develop applications for specific tech platforms, software languages, or business areas. However this ‘hackathon for women’ organized by Grace Hopper India is quite unique.

First of all, it’s a hackathon for women including developers and students; and secondly, it focuses on free and open source software (FOSS) based humanitarian projects. This year’s event saw the assembled hackers and coders building on top of three major project frameworks: MifosX, Bachchao, and Clinical Reminders.

The Bangalore-based event – now in its fourth year – yesterday brought together over 100 women in the technology field to work and contribute towards humanitarian open source projects in areas of financial inclusion, locations and maps, safe areas, and health and medication.