To Celebrate International Girls in ICT Day 2021 [By International Telecommunication Union], Bangladesh Open Source Network- BdOSN Organized a live open discussion on ‘Scopes and Challenges of Women Working in ICT and Telco Sectors’. The reach of the internet has spread around the world but the participation of females in the ICT fields is still low. The main goal of this session was to further discuss this situation. The program was live broadcasted on the official Facebook page of BdOSN.
The program was hosted by the Project Manager and Head of Operations of ESDG4Bd, BdOSN, Jahanara Amir Jimi, and the session was blessed by Rizwana Rashid Auni, General Manager [Content and Streaming] Robi Axiata Limited, Tania Tahmina, Frontend Developer and UI/ UX Designer of TiCOM System Limited and Sharmin Nahar Sharwardy, Researcher ICT and Health of Bangladesh University of Health Science.
Ms. Jahanara Amir Jimi introduced all the guests and asked the General Manager [Content and Streaming] Robi Axiata Limited, Rizwana Rashid Auni about her journey as she has joined this tech world 15 years ago and requested her share her experiences on it was back then for a woman to have a job in the tech field. While Ms. Rizwana Rashid Auni was sharing her story. She said that she started her journey in the telecommunication field by joining her first job at Banglalink. She said education is important but having self-confidence and sincerity is more important. With these in a person, he/she can manage herself. She said that “We are actually stronger than we believe and we are more powerful than we know and if we give our 100% in the work, then success will definitely come”. She also added that one has to understand the way to open up and has to know how to ask and get help. Ms. Jahanara Amir Jimi asked if she finds the students from the village area face more challenges in the job field. Rizwana Rashid Auni replied affirmatively but added that a small training can remove this borderline of challenges easily.
Ms. Jahanara Amir Jimi then asked Tania Tahmina to share her journey with the audience and Tania Tahmina said she started her journey as a frontend Developer but due to her attraction toward designing, she later purchased her career as a UI/ UX designer. She also added that the field of ICT is really huge and day by day it is increasing so are the opportunities for the person related to this ICT field and nowadays learning from the internet has become so easy that one can even get enough knowledge to make him/herself capable enough to work on his/her desired field.
Later in the session, Ms. Jahanara Amir Jimi invited the Researcher ICT and Health of the Bangladesh University of Health Science, Sharmin Nahar Sharwardy to share her perspective from the teacher's point of view. Ms. Sharmin Nahar Sharwardy told the audience that she is working on both ICT and health. She also said that she is basically working on combining the resources of the ICT field with the health field. She has been in this research field for 10 years. Ms. Sharmin Nahar Sharwardy also added that she finds the females to be more attentive and sincere in the job field and they deliver the assignments more quickly. Now, Ms. Jahanara Amir Jimi asked if Sharmin Nahar Sharwardy finds the students from the village area face more challenges in the job field. Sharmin Nahar Sharwardy said that she finds both the students from village and city equally and sometimes even more sincere.
Ms. Jahanara Amir Jimi ended the session by thanking both the audience and the guest.
The Program took place on the official Facebook page of Bangladesh Open Source Network- BdOSN on 22nd April 2021.
This program was organized under three years ESDG4BD project of BdOSN.