THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As part of this year's women's day celebrations, Malayalam Wikipedians have launched a month-long edit-a-thon, a drive to expand articles of importance to women. The project aims to introduce more women to Malayalam Wikipedia, create new articles related to women, expand the existing stubs and translate English articles to Malayalam.
Launched in tune with Wikipedia's Wiki Women's History Month projects, Wikipedians worldwide are organizing similar events.
Though Malayalam Wikipedia is one of the most active languages Wikipedia, the number of women editors are below a dozen. Of these, only one or two are active editors.
Netha Hussain, Kozhikode-based medical student, who is the torchbearer of project in Malayalam, agreed that only a few women are active in Malayalam Wikipedia. "The project aims to introduce more women to Wikipedia. A list of topics, which needs to be expanded, edited etc, has been prepared. Biography of prominent women and translation of biographies are all part of the event," Netha said.
Usha Titus, M T Padma, K K Lathika, J Arundhati, Malethu Sarala Devi, Rosamma Chacko, Jameela Prakasham are some of the prominent women included in list of personalities to be included in Wikipedia as part of the drive, which will conclude on March 31. Articles of a number of women, including Tessy Thomas, Mercy Ravi, Ajitha, Parvathy Omanakuttan etc, will be expanded. Biographies of award-winning women, people's representatives, etc will be translated from English to Malayalam. Surprisingly, except Netha and Ditty Mathew from Kochi, all others who have joined the edit-a-thon so far are men.