Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Building awareness on digital literacy and Wikipedia's free knowledge movement

statusWithdrawn
Building awareness on digital literacy and Wikipedia's free knowledge movement
The main objective of this proposal is to create awareness about the free knowledge movement and Wikipedia in Jharkhand and West Bengal and while adding 10000 unique readers in one year. Access to Wikimedia communities through Wikipedia movement would help in better training delivery and orientation of participants.
start date2022-01-01T00:00:00Z
end date2022-12-31T00:00:00Z
budget (local currency)7484805 INR
budget (USD)99801.04 USD
grant typeMission-aligned organization
organization typeNon profit organisation
funding regionSA
decision fiscal year2021-22
funding program roundRound 1
applicant(s)• N/A
organization (if applicable)• Anudip Foundation for Social Welfare

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Applicant information edit

A. Organization type

Mission-aligned organization

B. Organization name

Anudip Foundation for Social Welfare

E. Do you have an account on a Wikimedia project?

No

E1. Please provide the main Wikimedia Username (required) and Usernames of people related to this proposal.

N/A

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Did not apply previously

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

Yes
H1. Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
Accenture, Citi Foundation, JP MORGAN, USAID, Bank of America, HUL, Wells Fargo, Microsoft India, Microsoft L&T, Capgemini, HSBC CSR, ITC, ICRA, M-junction, H T Parekh Foundation, RPG Foundation, TATA STRIVE, TITAN
H2. Please state the size of these grants from the following options.
Above 50,000 USD
H3. What type of organization (s) did you receive grants from?
National NGO, International NGO, Bilateral or Multilateral Organizations
H4. What percentage of your program budget do other funders contribute to?
More than 75%

1. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

1a. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

2. Are you legally registered?

Yes

3. What type of organization are you?

Non profit organisation

4. What is your organization or group's mission and how does it align with the Wikimedia movement?

Anudip and WMF work in two allied fields, training and free content, with a common overarching goal: empowering people by promoting knowledge equity. While Anudip empowers communities through digital skills, the Wikimedia foundation aims does it through a free knowledge ecosystem.

Both organizations are familiar with the ethos of Indian communities. Hence, Anudip can bring more users to the free knowledge movement thorough its strengths in community outreach, mobilization and training.

5. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

Website: https://www.anudip.org/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AnudipFoundation Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AnudipFoundation2007 Twitter: https://twitter.com/anudipf

Grant proposal edit

6. Please state the title of your proposal.

Building awareness on digital literacy and Wikipedia's free knowledge movement

9. Where will this proposal be implemented?

India

10. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries?

Local

10a. If you have answered international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

10b. Are there any specific sub-regions or areas where your proposal will be implemented?

Our program will run among college students and other eligible candidates in Jharkhand and West Bengal, India digital literacy <40%).For English Wikipedia, the focus will be on Tier 2 & 3 cities in West Bengal. However, owing to virtual peer networks across cities, its impact in the post project phase is expected in several locations.

The young demographic in the intervention areas proposed is not fully information literate and yet, has a keen desire to gain information literacy skills and be upwardly mobile. Moreover, since most residents of these two states speak Bengali and Hindi, these two states are ideal for imparting digital skills training and building awareness of free knowledge movement.

The first step therefore, would be to empower these beneficiaries with the skill sets necessary to become information literate. Subsequently, we will connect them to Wikipedia and sister projects, thereby growing the engagement and connecting more people with the free knowledge movement.

11. What is the challenge or problem you are addressing and why is this important?

Almost 45% of people in India access the internet. However, relatively few use the internet for gaining knowledge and finding useful information. Women in particular, are cut off from the growth story of digital India. They are either unaware of the vast repository of free knowledge on the internet and/or lack the know-how to access and critically evaluate information on the internet. This leads to a knowledge gap between them and the digitally literate population.

In their paper, “Social inequalities, fundamental inequities, and recurring of the digital divide: Insights from India”, Tewathia, Kamath and Ilavarasan highlight that “highest adult education”, “caste of a household”, and “effect of occupation” are all determining factors in use of Information and Communication Technology. Moreover, “the ICT revolution holds the possibility of creating new means of social exclusion.” This grim story of India's digital divide goes back to the 90s when India first embraced the internet. However, in the aftermath of the pandemic when almost everything starting from education to employment and even daily transactions shifted to the online mode, we all realized how much the have-nots have lost. We now realize that the awareness of free knowledge and the ability to access and assimilate information can be a crucial game changer in the current scenario. Though English, Hindi and Bengali are among the top three languages spoken in India, yet, not all English speaking population can access information on the internet and precious few of the Bengali and Hindi speaking population are aware that information is available on the internet in Hindi and Bengali as well. Wikipedia In English, Hindi and Bengali had been started as a free knowledge resource. However, ignorance about the free knowledge movement and the free encyclopedia and inadequate know-how to access this freely available information is still a challenge.

This problem has manifold repercussions: 
 1) Inability to access information on the World Wide Web cuts communities off from a vast storehouse of information, entertainment and engagement. And since the fast growing internet is now a medium not only for learning but also for social engagement, the communities who get left out of this growth story, lose much more than just formal knowledge. They lose the means to create social networks and engage in fruitful dialogue.

2)Without the platform to engage socially among communities on the World Wide Web, marginalized communities lack the means to put their voices out there to present their own stories/stories of their communities to mould public opinion or influence policy makers. This proposal targets to connect more people to Wikimedia and the free knowledge movement by (1) creating awareness about the free knowledge movement (2) providing them with tools of digital and information literacy and the power of languages familiar to them (3) enabling them to add to the free knowledge repository.

12. What is the main objective of your proposal? Please state why you think partnering with Wikimedia Movement helps to achieve this objective?

The main objective of this proposal is to create awareness about the free knowledge movement and Wikipedia in Jharkhand and West Bengal and while adding 10000 unique readers in one year.

Access to Wikimedia communities through Wikipedia movement would help in better training delivery and orientation of participants.

13. Describe your main strategies to achieve this objective?

Project delivery: Anudip’s on-ground teams in the identified locations would work independently and through collaborations with colleges to identify participants with no digital or information literacy. For the English wiki segment – we would look at colleges in Tier 2 or Tier 3 cities in West Bengal, for the Bengali segment we would look at the Bengali speaking population in West Bengal and for the Hindi segment, we would look at the Hindi speaking population in Jharkhand. The program will be delivered through the following steps:
1. Basic digital training , awareness of the WMF, familiarity with Wikipedia and sister projects, navigating and using Wikipedia as a tool, focusing on learning to type on the indigenous language keyboard (for Bengali and Hindi).
2. Training to critically search, segregate and evaluate information for use and identify fake news, and a deeper understanding of the WMF and its Projects.
3. After a course on digital and information literacy including Wikipedia Module, the participants would learn the Project Wikipedia and the sister projects, followed with creation of accounts, and carrying out basic tasks like adding citations, thank you note, and spell checks, and micro-edits in the existing articles. Contributing images to Wikimedia Commons to enrich the open image repository.
4.Connecting with the relevant Wikimedia community leaders to seek inputs and learn.
5.Post this initial training a smaller cohort would be created from the entire trainee pool and these would become volunteers to take the free knowledge movement ahead.
6.They would conduct camps, events, awareness drives to spread the WMF brand awareness and teach knowledge enthusiasts the skills to contribute to Wikipedia and sister projects, thus continuing to spread the circle wider.

Connect with the Wikipedia community: Anudip will work with the relevant Wiki community leaders for inputs and mentoring of the beneficiaries as possible. Wiki leaders would be involved in: Strategic inputs and direction for the project with the template proposed. Training sessions with trainers and initial participants on image contribution, citation, thank you notification and spell check of Wikipedia articles. Mentoring and capacity building a smaller section of the beneficiaries who show the potential to be volunteers

Outcomes: Increased brand awareness about Wikimedia Foundation and it’s projects in tier 1 and tier 2 cities of West Bengal, Jharkhand and various parts of India Empowering 10,000 individuals on accessing information on the Internet and imbibing critical skills which would equip them to tackle mis-information and fake news. 10000 beneficiaries familiarized with linguistic keyboards. Enhancement of the Wiki content repository through spell-checks, addition of images, citations, micro-edits and thank you notifications 100 committed volunteers who will take the Wiki movement forward even beyond the project period.

14. Are you running any in-person events or activities?

Yes

15. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified content knowledge gaps?

Geography, Language, Socioeconomic Status

16. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or thematic focus.

Education, Diversity

17. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select all categories that apply.

Geographic , Linguistic / Language, Socioeconomic status, Digital Access

18. Please tell us more about your target participants.

The story of India’s digital growth is, unfortunately, unequally distributed across places and genders. Digital literacy rates in states like West Bengal and Jharkhand is below 40% while less than a third(29%) of Indian women access the internet.

Therefore, our program will target 10000 participants from tier 1,2 and 3 cities of West Bengal and Jharkhand of whom 50% will be women. Our program will empower the beneficiaries with digital and information literacy and equip them with critical thinking skills to evaluate information on the internet, recognize fake news/ spam/ phishing. Further, specific training on Wikimedia modules will be provided to help them to participate actively in the free knowledge movement by adding images, citations and thank-you notes. To minimize dropouts and retain beneficiaries - By the end of the program we will have equipped 10000 beneficiaries with digital literacy skills, who will access Wikipedia and sister platforms. Detailed beneficiary surveys will be conducted three months post program completion for feedback on whether they 1) continue to access Wikipedia Bengali, English and Hindi language pages 2) apply the information in daily life 3) continue to contribute to Wikipedia 4) are in touch with local Wikimedia communities. In the years after the program, we expect continued addition of unique readers from across the country through the peer groups of our beneficiaries. Moreover since our target demographic need to frequently access information, and are more inclined towards community sharing, we expect contribution to Wikimedia projects from across the country to increase remarkably as a result of this program.

19. Do you have plans to work with other Wikimedia communities, groups or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

Yes

19a. If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.

For the successful implementation of this project and to continue to grow contribution to Wikimedia projects, Anudip would work with Leaders in Wikimedia communities - who are experts in the field.

Initial exploratory conversations have been held with Manavpreet, a Wikimedia Foundation Advisor to ensure alignment and inputs have been incorporated as well.

19b. If no, please tell us the reasons why it has not been possible to make these connections.

N/A

20. Will you be working with other external non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

No

20a. If yes, please describe these partnerships.

N/A

20a. If yes, indicate sharing of resources from these partners (in kind support, grants, donations, payments).

N/A

21. Please tell us how your organization is structured.

Monisha holds a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Physics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and is an alumna of the Haas Business School, University of California, Berkeley. She has donned various hats of academics, quality, product, business development while being a true academician at heart.

She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Education Growth and Research (CEGR), and has co-authored a book on Employability Skills on its behalf. As CEO of Anudip, her efforts are aimed towards driving more value to donors, beneficiaries and employers through product innovation, alignment of donor goals, and process improvement. Mr. Tanmay Mukherjee – Assistant Vice-President, Operations Tanmay has over 12 years of experience working with national and international agencies and has extensive on ground experience. He is an MA in Sociology from University of Burdwan. Mr. Prasun Kumar – Assistant Vice-President, Operations Prasun has handled both corporate relations and center operations at Anudip and has a cumulative experience of 15 years across organizations. He has attended the Leadership Development Program in IIM Bangalore. Ms. Alakananda Ghosh – General Manager, Program Management Alakananda has over 16 years of experience in donor management, marketing and corporate communications. She currently manages a large portfolio of over 15 donors – looking at monitoring, evaluation, strategy and research. She holds a post-graduate degree from MICA.

22. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

While almost every Anudip team will be involved behind the scenes for successfully running this project, please find below the role details of our on-ground project team who will be directly involved in running the program.

Monisha Banerjee, CEO, Tanmay Mukherjee, Assistant Vice President- Operations, and Alakananda Ghosh- from the Anudip Leadership team will be directly overseeing this project. The On ground Project Team:

Program manager: A dedicated program manager will oversee the end to end delivery of the program across both locations and be responsible for the output. State head: He will oversee the ground operations aspect of the program and will share the program manager’s goals of effective program delivery by ensuring timely enrollments, class completion and assessment completion. Trainers: Three trainers in each location will conduct classes, mark class attendance, and ensure timely and fair assessments. All our trainers have to clear a rigorous Teachers’ Training Program before they take any classes. Mobilizers: Our locally hired mobilizers have knowledge of the catchment area. They will conduct awareness drives, fitment surveys and enroll students. Having a local resource to mobilize participants helps to penetrate deep community pockets by gaining trust through opening a dialogue with the local community. MIS executive: Our dedicated MIS executive will collate periodic reports, draw in data from our Centralized MIS and raise red flags in cases of attendance, batch closure, assessments etc.

23. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.  

Upload Strategic Plan

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit

24. What do you hope to learn from this proposal?

Through this program we expect to have a better understanding of:

Why knowledge about Wikipedia and the free knowledge movement has not penetrated in some parts of India/ among some people what factors motivate individuals to actively participate in the free knowledge movement and what factors prevent their participation how deep engagement with the movement through training programs can affect brand awareness How beneficiaries of the training program can act as effective proponents of the program

Deeper knowledge of these factors would enable us to : Explore new ways of mobilizing target communities to participate in the free knowledge movement further customize content and training delivery to suit the needs of beneficiaries from these communities Explore ways of creating exponential impact in the second and third phases of our program Through our evaluation methods we get an idea of the success of our pedagogy and need for course correction in the future. We will compare results of the baseline and end tests. The attendance of students in the class, their completion of self-learning modules on the Anudip LMS, and their participation in live Wikimedia projects will also be factored in. We also have a strong student feedback mechanism where students provide detailed feedback on learning sustainability and community impact. All this put together, will help us to evaluate the success of the project and decide upon a future course of action.

Core Metrics edit

25. Enter a description of the metric and a number in the target field. If the metric does not apply to you, enter N/A for not applicable.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target
Number of participants 10000 new participants in West Bengal and Jharkhand of which at least 5000 will be women. The beneficiaries will be trained in digital and information skills and be able to access and contribute to Wiki repository by the end of the program 10000
Number of editors
Number of organizers
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
Wikipedia spell checks, citations, thank you notes 3000
Wikimedia Commons images 5000
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A

25a. If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation. (optional)

N/A

26. What other information will you be collecting to learn about the impact of your work? (optional)

N/A

27. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

We will measure the metrics as follows:

1) 10000 impacted beneficiaries: we will maintain database of program beneficiaries in the first year. We will also need assistance from Wikimeda analytics tool to monitor increase in unique user IDs. 2) 5000 images and 3000 citations and thank you notifications: Again, we will need assistance from Wikipedia analytics tool to measure these statistics.

28. How do you hope to share these results so that others can learn from them?

Create a video of our experience, Make a short presentation of the experience, Share results on social media, I would like to receive support from the Foundation to discover how I can share my learning

Financial Proposal edit

29. What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency.

7484805 INR

30. What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

99801.04 USD

31. & 32. Please provide a budget for the amount of funding requested.

33. What do you do to make sure there is a good management of funds?

Anudip has a very intense and transparent system of accounting and managing funds. All vouchers and invoices are maintained stringently and regular checks are conducted at various levels in the finance team to make sure that all information is accurate.

Anudip is also audited financially by external auditors and both programmatically and financially for specific projects by third party auditors.

Anudip also has a stellar record in these audits and this responsibility is shared by department heads across the organization.

Monthly or quarterly reports and utilization certificates are also available to ensure checks during project period.

34. How will you contribute towards creating a supportive environment for participants using the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy?

In keeping with the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy we will practice empathy, constructive feedback and acceptance. All our project members and especially those who come in direct touch with beneficiaries are vetted for behavior traits of civility, collegiality, and supportiveness. Our trainers and project team mentor our project participants regularly. In fact, these behavior traits are among the cornerstones of our program success.

Anudip also has a Code of Conduct policy in place which has to be adhered to for all employees.

35. Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

Other public document(s):

Final message edit

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

36. We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

Feedback edit