We are all aware of the large reach and popularity of Wikipedia. However, what most people don’t know is that, according to a study conducted in 2011, only 9% of the editors at Wikipedia were women. And the percentage for India is even lower, just 3%.
Wikipedia recognises the systemic gender bias that is created because of factors such as these and thus enables its diverse range of users to edit and create Wikipedia pages, with reliable and authentic sources.
For June, Pride Month, Feminism In India along with Gaylaxy Magazine and India HIV/AIDS Alliance co-organised a Wikipedia Editathon on ‘Queer Pride Marches in India’ at India HIV/AIDS Alliance‘s office, to increase the representation of queer pride marches in various cities and towns of India as well as to teach a new skill of creating and editing articles on Wikipedia to the youth.
Accordingly, we created a list of Indian queer pride marches and looked at their representation on Wikipedia. A lot of the names on the list did not have any Wikipedia pages, while the ones which did, had very basic and limited information (stub pages).
We were a group of 11 participants in total. The event began with a discussion on the whys and hows of Wikipedia editing for new-comers.
Our #WikipediaEditathon on #PrideMarches is underway! Notice our cool #Pride flag decor ?. Stay tuned for updates! #PrideMarch pic.twitter.com/FyYd5MeFSj
— Feminism in India (@FeminismInIndia) June 17, 2017
After that, each participant chose one or more pride march/city absent from Wikipedia, and started digging through the internet looking for interviews, news reports and e-books that mentioned their chosen march/city to write comprehensive Wikipedia articles on them.
By the end of the day, the participants had created a total of about 14 Wikipedia pages.
Articles
- Delhi Queer Pride Parade: Japleen
- Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk: Shagun
- Chennai Rainbow Pride: Asmita
- Awadh Queer Pride: Megha
- Chandigarh LGBT Pride Walk: Archita
- Nagpur Pride March: Aqsa
- Pune Pride: Darshan
- Bhopal Pride March: Aqsa
- Gurgoan Queer Pride: Archita
- Queer Azaadi Mumbai: Himanshi
- Queer Gulabi Pride Jaipur: Japleen
- Patna Pride March: Suraj
- Hyderabad Queer Pride March: Megha
- Bengaluru Namma Pride March: Sukhdeep
Additional statistics can be viewed on the P&E dashboard here.
