What started with 10 members has grown into a global community, creating more opportunities for women to learn, contribute, and lead in open source.
Launched in 2023 as an OpenSource DB CSR chapter, Postgres Women India has expanded from its humble beginnings of 10 members to a thriving network of over 2000 women across more than 70 countries. This initiative aims to tackle the underrepresentation of women in open source and database conferences, providing a platform for their voices and expertise.
Origin and rapid growth
The inception of Postgres Women India was sparked by the noticeable lack of female participants and speakers at PostgreSQL conferences. Recognizing this gap, the founders established the community as a corporate social responsibility initiative under OpenSource DB, a startup focused on the PostgreSQL ecosystem. Since its establishment, the community has flourished, with members actively engaging as open source developers and learners in PostgreSQL, AI, and various data technologies.
Mission, vision, and core pillars
The mission of Postgres Women India is to empower, connect, and celebrate women in technology, particularly in the open source domain. The objective is to cultivate an inclusive ecosystem where women’s voices, ideas, and leadership are not only acknowledged but also valued. The vision extends towards fostering a diverse, inclusive, and globally connected community that encourages women to participate in and lead open source development. Inclusion is woven into the fabric of the community’s culture, emphasizing mentorship, learning, and representation.
The community’s efforts revolve around three core pillars: community building, nurturing the next generation of leaders, and advocating for education in academia.
Community engagement and academic partnerships
Postgres Women India organizes both virtual and in-person meetups, featuring speakers from the PostgreSQL, AI, and data ecosystems. Mentorship is a cornerstone of the initiative, linking students, professors, and startup operators to enhance skills and foster innovative ideas. These programs are designed to equip students with essential skills while assisting professionals in transitioning or advancing within the PostgreSQL ecosystem, all while connecting participants with industry insights.
In terms of education and advocacy, the community collaborates with universities such as JNTU in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as well as IIT Madras’s consulting wing, IITM Pravartak, among other educational institutions. These partnerships aim to provide students with valuable exposure to database technologies and industry practices.
Leadership nurturing and global team
To ensure sustainable growth, Postgres Women India focuses on leadership development, encouraging the community to thrive beyond the contributions of any single individual. Since its inception, the community has hosted PostgreSQL and AI bootcamps and leadership events. Notably, in 2025, the Women for Data Summit attracted over 100 participants, showcasing the community’s commitment to fostering leadership.
The initiative is supported by a dedicated global core team, including Aarti, Kalyani, Keerthi Seetha, Praveena Sivasankar, and Hari Kiran.
Key milestones and programs
Postgres Women India was founded in 2023, during a period when many professionals were re-entering the workforce or adapting to new technologies post-COVID-19. The community aimed to bridge the gap between industry needs and participants’ skills, steadily establishing regional chapters and hosting meetups while its members spoke at global conferences.
The PostgreSQL conferences held in Bengaluru in 2024 and 2025 attracted between 600 to 800 PostgreSQL professionals, where the community showcased its initiatives and technical upskilling efforts.
Several key initiatives define the operational focus of Postgres Women India:
- Career connect day: This event connects hiring partners directly with job seekers, providing a targeted platform for students, early-career candidates, and seasoned professionals to demonstrate their skills to companies seeking specialized PostgreSQL talent, ranging from performance tuning to database administration.
- Upskill programmes: These intensive 20-week courses cover PostgreSQL architecture, database internals, and performance engineering, attracting participants from student communities in India and experienced database professionals from Europe and the US looking to enhance their PostgreSQL skills.
- Women for Data Summit 2026: The community hosted its second annual Women for Data Summit in January 2026, further solidifying its commitment to empowering women in the data field.
Recognition, technical impact, and allies
Recognition plays a vital role in sustaining the community’s momentum. Postgres Women India has honored 18 women globally as ‘Postgres Women of the Month’ and highlighted eight emerging contributors through the ‘Rookie Spotlight’ initiative. These stories are shared on social media platforms, showcasing the impactful contributions of women in open source.
Many of the recognized women have made significant contributions to core PostgreSQL code utilized in production systems worldwide. For instance, Alicia and Bina Emerson have worked on logical decoding features, while Malladi from Microsoft has contributed to B-tree and GIN index implementations.
While the focus is on empowering women, the community also collaborates with male allies, mentors, and contributors. These male supporters provide valuable expertise and mentorship in areas such as production PostgreSQL, database migration, DevOps, core development, and the AI ecosystem.
Partnerships and call for community support
OpenSource DB served as the founding CSR partner, and support has since broadened to include organizations like Google, YugaByteDB, and IITM Pravartak, with advocates such as Gayatri Varadharan championing the initiative. Volunteers and supporting organizations across various time zones and technical domains also contribute to the community’s endeavors.
Postgres Women India continues to seek external support, inviting organizations and startups to contribute by establishing local chapters in Tier-1, Tier-2, or Tier-3 cities, hosting technical meetups, offering mentorship, or connecting community members with hiring networks and career opportunities.
The article is based on the talk at OPEN SOURCE INDIA 2025 titled ‘Postgres Women India: Driving Diversity and Innovation in Open Source’, delivered by Hari Kiran, Founder & CEO, OpenSource DB, and Praveena Sivasankar, Head – Operations, OpenSource DB. The talk was transcribed and curated by Jiya Jay Singh, Journalist at EFY.
