Women Empowerment & ICT

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Name: - Prof. Shashikant Bhagat
Institution’s Name: - National Institution of Mass Communication & Journalism,
Address: - 4th Floor, Shapath-1, Opp. Rajpath Club, S.G. Highway, Bodakdev,
Ahmedabad-380015
Ph./Fax: 079-26870443; Web: www.nimcj.org
Mobile: - 09726098398
E-mail: shashi_lc@yahoo.co.in;
Reference: Dr. Shirish Kashikar (Director) – NIMCJ

Topic
“Women Empowerment &
Communication”
** A woman is a female human. It is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl
being the usual term for a female child or adolescent**

** Woman is the base of humane”**

** Women Empowerment” - As we know that the empowerment refers the spiritual,
social, or economic strength of individual and communities. It also involves in
women, the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities”**
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Abstract

This paper explores the empowerment of women in the context of knowledge
society is understood as building the ability and skills. Those ability and skills of
women to gain their insight of actions and issues in the internal and external
environment which influence them, and to build their capacity to get involved and
voice their concerns in these process of internal and external environment, and make
informed decisions in a effective and better way. It entails building up of capacities
of women to overcome social and institutional barriers, and strengthening their
participation in the economic and political process for an overall improvement in
their qualities of lives.

The world is in the midst of a knowledge revolution, where the entire society tends
to becoming “knowledge society” which complemented by opening up of entirely
new spectrum in the areas of communication technology. Recent development in the
fields of communication technology is indeed of a revolutionary in nature.

Shashikant_National Institute of Mass Communication & Journalism, Ahmedabad

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Communication Technologies (CTs) are a diverse set of technological tools and
resources to create-re-create, disseminate, store, bring value-addition and manage
information.

Contd…..

They are for everyone and women have to be an equal beneficiary to the advantages
offered by the technology, and the products and processes which emerge from their
use. The whole revolutionary cycle accrued from the synergy of knowledge and CTs
need not be restricted to the upper strata of the society, but to freely flow of all
segments of the women population.

The gamut of platform/areas in which CTs can put a greater control in the hands of
women is wide and ever expanding, from managing water distribution at the village-
level of standing for local elections and having access to media and lifelong learning
opportunities.

“Women Empowerment and Communication” have played both in a way of act (law
& order) and in a way of convergence with the other forms of technologies that have
the potential to those women who have been reached out by media or by any other
means. Thereby, empowering them to participate in economic and social progress,
and make informed decision on front-line issues that affect them.

Lastly, I would say that the “women empowerment” is very much cognizant at all
level that covers the totality of the following or similar capabilities with the help of
Communication Technologies (CTs.) –

• Having decision-making power of their own
• Having access to information and resources for taking proper decision
• Having a range of options from which women can make choices (not just
yes/no, either/or)
• Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making
• Having positive thinking on the ability to make change
• Ability to learn skills for improving one’s personal or group power
• Ability to change other’s perceptions by democratic means
• Involving in the growth process and change that is never ending and self-
initiated
• Increase one’s positive self-image and overcoming stigma


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Introduction:
Communication, in the layman’s language means to convey a message, an idea, a
picture or a speech that is received and understood clearly and correctly by the
person for whom it is conveyed. It encompasses a multitude of experiences, actions
and events, as well as a whole variety of happenings and meanings, and
technologies too.

• Further, the contemporary period has come to be labeled variously the
‘Information Age’, the ‘Communication Age’, and most recently the Cyber
or Networking Age. The uses and understanding of communication have
come a long way from its original association first with ‘means of transport’
and later with ‘transmission’.

Telephonic message is more reliable because the person on the other side of the
phone can immediately confirm that he got the message and understood it. However,
he/she may forget after a little while unless reminded. Telephonic communication is
popular because it is instantaneous and cheaper. You can talk to a person and
convey a lot of message on telephone. But, picture cannot be sent on telephone.
Large amount of data or message cannot be remembered if conveyed on telephone.
It is in this context, that data communication containing messages, pictures and
voice, has assumed the importance.

• WOMEN COMMUNICATION AND KNOWLEDGE NETWORK:

Women stand to benefit tremendously from the inroads laid by ICT in the domain of
knowledge networking. At the very conceptual level, ICT have the potential to
digitally link each and every woman in the world in star topology network which
opens up endless possibilities for information exchange.

This mechanism could be used by women in creative ways, both to communication
with other people who are online, and also to disseminate information to people in
the outside world who are not online through the use of convergence and hybrid
technology such as community newsletters, videos etc. This forms the skeletal
process through which women communities could overcome the constraints of

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seclusion, mobilize resources and support, reach out new markets, and open up
avenues for life-long learning.

• WOMEN EMPOWERMENT:

The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to
adopt measures of positive discrimination in favor of women. Empowerment is one
of the key factors in determining the success of development is the status and
position of women in the society. We put a special focus on empowering women
and girls, because we believe they hold the key to long-lasting social change in
communities. Empowering women must be a united approach, a cause that requires
continued attention and stewardship by all. We need to augment our efforts for
empowering women and enhance their progress. It is our moral, social and
constitutional responsibility to ensure their progress by providing them with equal
rights and opportunities. Today women with their smartness, grace and elegance
have conquered the whole world. They with their hard work and sincerity have
excelled in each and every profession. Women are considered to be more honest,
meticulous, and efficient and hence more and more companies prefer hiring women
for better performance and result.

Empowerment of women in the context of knowledge societies in every walks of
life whether they belongs to urban, semi-urban, rural and tribal. And these
knowledge societies understood as building the ability and skills of women to gain
insight of actions and issues in the external environment which influence them, and
to build their capacity to get involved and voice their concerns in these external
processes, and make informed decisions. It entails building up of capacities of
women to overcome social and institutional barriers, and strengthening their
participation in the economic and political processes for an overall improvement in
their quality of lives.

ICT however opens up a direct window for women to the outside world. Information
now flows to them without distortion or any form of censoring, and they have access
to same information as their male counterpart. This leads to broadening of

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perspective, building up of greater understanding of their current situation and
causes of poverty, and initiation of interactive processes for information exchange.
Further, such forms of networking open up alternate forms of communication to
those offered by the conventional or the government controlled media sources, and
therefore catalyses the empowerment process.

ICT makes the role of time and distance less significant in organizing business and
production related activities. As a result of the technology, a high proportion of jobs
outsourced by big firms are going to women.

Women therefore can work from anywhere and at anytime and raise that extra
income to become more financially independent and empowered.

Lastly, one of the most powerful applications of ICT in the domain of knowledge
networking is electronic commerce. Women over time have learnt the advantages
offered by ICT and its potential in opening up windows to the outside world. This
has put them in a grater control over the activities performed by them- laying the
foundation for entrepreneurship development.

POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT:

The marginalization of women in political processes and governance in general has
been both the cause and effect of slow progress made in the advancement of women.
By their virtual potential to connect every woman in a network of information
exchange, it offers endless possibilities for women to play a pro-active role and
impact on governance processes at the local and global level.

BACKGROUND:

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) comprise a complex and
heterogeneous set of goods, applications and services used to produce, distribute,
process and transform information. They include the outputs of industries as diverse
as telecommunications, television and software, computer services and electronic
media (e.g., the Internet, E-mail, e-commerce, social networking websites and
computer games, etc.).

The entire research is involved in following parameters:

1. Having decision-making power of their own
2. Having access to information and resources for taking proper decision
3. Having a range of options from which women can make choices (not
just yes/no, either/or)
4. Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making
5. Having positive thinking on the ability to make change


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6. Ability to learn skills for improving one’s personal or group power
7. Ability to change other’s perceptions by democratic means
8. Involving in the growth process and change that is never ending and
self-initiated
9. Increase one’s positive self-image and overcoming stigma

And now, the place of women in Indian societies: A (cultural) historical perspective:

 The Goddess (Devi)
 The Mother
 The Sister
 The Wife

Scope of the Study:
Women are the equal beneficiaries to the advantages offered by technology, and the
product and processes, which are by product of the technology use. However, it
should not be confined to elite group of society but to flow to the other segments of
women in Indian society. The study wanted to know about infrastructure (social,
economical, educational, etc) available to different segments of the women and
social freedom and opportunities in rural and urban areas. The applicability may
invite government intervention to stop digital divide among women and also to more
empowerment for women with ICT usage.

Objectives of the Study:

 To assess ICT infrastructure in rural, urban vis-à-vis semi-urban areas for
women empowerment.
 To assess the impact of economic/social/academic background of women
workforce in ICT.
 To assess the status of ICT in education in terms of policies of scholarships,
reservation, business development programmes for self-employment for
women.
 To assess social and health implication for ICT with reference to women
workers.
 To assess equal opportunities in other areas.


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Methodology:
While designing methodology the study objectives, as specified in the conceptual
framework.

Before starting to put categorically analysis on above mentioned points, let’s take a
look the current status of India and Gujarat:

Women Worldwide:
 Women and Poverty
 70% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty are female.1

 Women as a Workers:
Women do more than :
 67% of the hours of work done in the world.
 Earn only 10% of the world’s income.
 And own only 1% of the world’s property.2
 The value of unremunerated work was estimated about $16 billion, from which $11 billion
represents the invisible contribution of women.3
 Women are paid 30-40% less than men for comparable work on an average.4
 60-80% of the food in most developing countries is produced by women.5
 Women hold between 10-20% managerial and administrative jobs.6
 Women make up less than 5% of the world’s heads of state.7

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 Women and Education:
 60% of the 130 million children in the age group of 6-11 years who do not go the school,
are girls.8
 Approximately 67% of the world’s 875 million illiterate adults are women
 3 out of 5 women in Southern Asia and an estimated 50% of all women in Africa and in the
Arab region are still illiterate.9
 Women and Health:
 Women account for 50% of all people living with HIV/AIDS globally.10
 In the year 2000, there were
a) 80 million unwanted pregnancies.
b) 20 million unsafe abortions
c) 5 lakhs maternal deaths
Note: 99% of these cases were reported in developing countries11

1. Source: http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-36.html.
2. Source: UN statics.
3. Source: The Human Development Report, 1995.
4. Source: The Human Development Report, 1995.
5. Sorce: http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-818.html.
6-7: Souce: UN Statics
8-9: Sorce: http://www.undp.org.in/webbook/Enlarg-spc-wmn-
india.htm.
10. Source: http://www.breakthrough.tv/teach_detail.asp?
TeachId=9&id-5
11. Source: http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-24.html.

Women in India:
 Child Sex Ration (0-6 years)
 The child sex ration has dropped from
a) 945 females per 1000 males in 1991 to
b) 927 females per 1000 males in 2001.12
 The United Nations Children’s Fund, estimated that upto 50 million
girls and women are ‘missing’ from India’s population because of
termination of the female foetus or high mortality of the girl child due to
lack of proper care.13
 Women as Workers
 Female share of non-agricultural wage employment is only
17% .14
 29.9% in the rural sector.15
 Women’s wage rates are, on an average:
 only 75% of men’s wage rate and
 constitute only 25% of the family income
 Women Ocupy:
 Only 9% of parliamentary seats

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 less than 4% seats in High Courts and Supreme Court
 less than 3% administrators and managers are women17
 Women and Education:
 Close to 245 million Indian women lack the basic capability
to read and write18
 Adult literacy rates for ages 15 and above for the year 2000
were
a) female 46.4%
b) male rate of 69%.19
 Women and Health:
 The average nutritional intake of women in 1400 calories
daily. The necessary requirement is approximately 2200
calories.20
 38% of all HIV positive people in India are women yet only
25% of beds in AIDS care centers in India are occupied by
them.21
 92% of women in India suffers from gynecological
problems.22
 300 women die every day due to childbirth and pregnancy
related causes.23
 The maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births in the
year 1995 was 440.24
12. Source: Indian Census Report, 2001.
13. Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/040617/43/2dodv.html
14. Source:: Human Development Report, 2003.
15-17 Sources: http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/cty_f_IND.html.
18. Source: Women in India-How free? How equal?-Kalyani Menon Sen, A.K.
Kumar
19. Source: http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/cty_f_IND.html.
20. Source: Gender and Women’s Health, publication by CHETNA, NGO.
21. Source: http://breakthrough.tv/teach_detail.asp?TeachID-9&id-5
22. Source: Gender and Women’s Health, publication by CHETNA, NGO.
23. Source: Women in India-How free? How equal?-Kalyani Menon Sen, A.K.
Kumar
24. Source: Human Development Report, 2003.

Role of ICT in Women Development in India: -

According India’s constitution, women are legal citizens of the country and
have equal rights with men (Indian Parliament). Because of lack of acceptable
from the male dominant society, Indian women suffer immensely. Women are
responsible for baring children, yet they are malnourished and in poor health.
Women are overworked in the field and complete the all of the domestic work.
Most Indian women are uneducated. Although the country’s constitution says


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women have equal status to men, women are powerless and are mistreated
inside and outside the home.

Women in India now participate in all activities such as education, politics, media,
art and culture, service sectors, science and technology, etc.

The Constitution of India guarantees to all Indian women equality (Article 14), no
discrimination by the State (Article 15(1)), equality of opportunity (Article 16),
equal pay for equal work (Article 39(d)). In addition, it allows special provisions to
be made by the State in favor of women and children (Article 15(3)), renounces
practices derogatory to the dignity of women (Article 51(A) (e)), and also allows for
provisions to be made by the State for securing just and humane conditions of work
and for maternity relief. (Article 42).

The feminist activism in India picked up momentum during later 1970s. One of the
first national level issues that brought the women's groups together was the Mathura
rape case. The acquittal of policemen accused of raping a young girl Mathura in a
police station, led to a wide-scale protests in 1979–1980. The protests were widely
covered in the national media, and forced the Government to amend the Evidence
Act, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Penal Code and introduce the
category of custodial rape. Female activists united over issues such as female
infanticide, gender bias, women health, and female literacy.

Since alcoholism is often associated with violence against women in India, many
women groups launched anti-liquor campaigns in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal
Pradesh, Haryana, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and other states. Many Indian Muslim
women have questioned the fundamental leaders' interpretation of women's rights
under the Shariat law and have criticized the triple talaq system.

In 1990s, grants from foreign donor agencies enabled the formation of new women-
oriented NGOs. Self-help groups and NGOs such as Self Employed Women's
Association (SEWA) have played a major role in women's rights in India. Many
women have emerged as leaders of local movements. For example, Medha Patkar of
the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

The Government of India declared 2001 as the Year of Women's Empowerment
(Swashakti). The National Policy For The Empowerment of Women came was
passed in 2001.

Role of the Government and the NGO Sector

A number of women’s organizations have realized the importance of creating
and participating in regional and worldwide information exchange which will
enable them to share ideas, proposals, documents and information. Computer
networks are a form of appropriate technology that makes this exchange
possible. Combined with other media forms like printed material, radio,


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television, to name a few, such exchange can more easily be extended to
regions and groups that cannot access computer networks. Need of such
networks has mainly arisen due to issues of concern to women, which do not
preclude basic housekeeping, health & sanitation, children’s education,
balancing resources and traditional chores. ICT is not at all aimed at breaking
the traditional role of women. It rather aims at empowerment that will fortify
the male bastions. In doing so, they often face obstacles like resource crunch
(financial and technological), reduced access to training and technical
assistance or non-gender sensitive methodologies, social and cultural barriers
for women and girls to access technology, educational short- comings,
misconceptions about technology, language barriers, etc., some of which have
already been mentioned above. Since problems are inter-linked and solutions
are diverse in nature, the endeavours also have to come from different quarters.

There have been attempts to overcome the obstacles of women’s access to ICT
in India. The major initiatives undertaken in the formal sector may be
summarized as follows:

• Repackaging of Internet-accessed information and combining Internet
technology with ‘traditional’ or more established tools of communication
like radio, television and print media.

• Facilitating content development on the web-production and use of ICT
resources in different Indian languages.

• Government policies to ensure that women are brought to the mainstream
through ICT programmes through accessible technology, relevant and useful
to women.

• Institution of scholarships and awards, with incentives, to promote the
enrollment of girls and women in ICT programmes.

• Continuing training programmes and awareness workshops on the use and
potential of ICT throughout the country.

These are significant openings created for women. Decentralisation and
devolution of powers through Panchayats (these are smallest units of local
administration) have included computerization, installation of kiosks for
information and networks for dissemination. The elected women
representatives can use these to interact with their constituencies and their
colleagues in other parts of the country. ICT can influence changes and
restructure in the prevailing power equations.

The Department of Women and Child Development under the Ministry of
Human Resource Development is the key agency for development and welfare
of women and children. Most of the provincial governments also carry out
women related activities through Social Welfare Departments. Ministry of


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Human Resource Development and Ministry of Information Technology have
formulated a number of schemes, particularly in the area of education and
training in ICT. These schemes can succeed with gender-sensitivity and
removal of regional biases.

Opportunities galore in ICT-enabled services in a country like India where
there has never been a paucity of ideas or knowledgeable people. Political
networks and advocacy groups have been formed due to proliferation of these
technologies. Income generation is another area where ICT has been making
headway. ICT can link women in various areas, help coordinate agenda, speed
up communication, reaching a vast number of people in less time. ICT offers
invaluable tools for dissemination of indigenous knowledge. Women’s
effective participation in the information society needs to be assumed if
countries are to successfully achieve their development goals and practices.
While there have been lots of development efforts to increase the access and
use of ICT in general, there is still a marked difference in their impact on the
lives of men and women. That is precisely the reason why international
agencies prefer to do their work in India through certain Non-government
Organisations (NGO) and voluntary bodies.

As the largest democracy in the world, India has a huge array of non-
government organizations active in education and women's issues. There have
been numerous experiments in India devoted to addressing the digital divide,
particularly because of the high-profile domestic IT industry against an
extremely poor and uneducated population. However, only a few are
specifically targeted at women.

State governments are also investing in IT training and infrastructure amply
demonstrated by Andhra Pradesh. According to the Ministry of IT, “State and
Central governments have instigated programs to increase the use of computers
in poorer regions”. Although States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan are prioritizing IT, the poor telecommunications
infrastructure is still the major obstacle to broader access and application of IT
in India.

Intermediary organisations could also contribute to building capacities of
women by providing them training in basic computer skills (like accessing the
Internet), and other skills like desktop publishing, website creation, e-
commerce, etc. To facilitate access for women from various classes and
sectors, the intermediary organisations need to be strategically located in local
institutions, such as health centres, women’s employment centres and studies
departments, libraries, , community centres, etc, to which women have open
and equal access. A large number of NGOs are showing genuine interest in this
sector.


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New Horizons of ICT for Women: Problems and Prospects

The ICT policy when looked at from a gender perspective must take into
consideration the various dimensions, including education, employment and
empowerment.

According to the 2001 census, female literacy is 54.16 % as against male
literacy of 75.85 % in India. The enrollment of girls in educational institutions
decreases as educational level goes higher. The enrollment of girls in
Engineering/ Technology/ Architecture at the Bachelors level (in 1998) is
57,968 as against 285,137 boys. This imbalance is largely due to socio-
economic reasons, and a very large concerted drive is required to remove this
imbalance.

Since the percentage of women enrolling for higher education is quite low, the
benefit of ICT can go to a large section if more and more IT courses at 10+ or
12+ levels are introduced as vocational streams. The girls’ polytechnics are
promoting some of these with preferences in jobs, and special incentives in the
initial years.

Keeping in view the plight of rural women, who are more unaware of new
technologies than their urban counterparts, government is providing special
packages for them, who are involved in home based or small-scale activities
related to handloom, handicraft, sericulture, etc. From identification of projects
to the marketing of products, these packages are helping women entrepreneurs
to a great extent. Government of India is in the process of establishing
Community Information Centres (CIC) at all block levels, which are designed

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as the prime movers of ICT in the most economically backward and
geographically difficult terrains. CICs are supposed to provide multipurpose
information (on health, education, social welfare and small-scale industry, etc).
This might prove to be a “shot in the arm” for the rural women that can boost
their economic and social status.

Information and communication technologies have created new types of work
that favour women because the technology enables work to be brought to
homes and allows for better accommodation of work and family schedules.
Women have also been able to capture a large proportion of jobs in ICT-
enabled services because of the worldwide shortage of skills necessary for
work in this sector.

Many women are software programmers, but very few are in hardware design.
New ICT jobs for women especially in India are in the service industries in
information processing, banking, insurance, printing and publishing. So far, the
most promising potential for women is in the creation of new jobs at “Call
Centres” and in work involving data processing. The International Labour
Organisation reports that ‘telecentres and fax booths have created a quarter of a
million jobs in India in the last four years alone, a huge proportion of which
have gone to women’.

While specific gender data on the networking profession in India were not
available, fewer women are employed in networking compared to software
occupations. This is attributed to the preconceptions that the physical aspects of
the work are too difficult for women such as the long, erratic hours and
traveling. The lack of mobility is cited as one of the major constraints to
women’s ability to participate in the IT work force in India. If women want to
work in the IT sector, they have to relocate themselves. However, living alone
away from home is not the norm for young, single women because of security
issues and the traditional view that women's role is in the home with the family.
As a result, the current IT employment opportunities in large cities like
Hyderabad or Mumbai are often not appealing or feasible for many women,
particularly those from the other parts of the country. So, there are many cases
where women have sufficient IT education and training, but do not work in the
field because they lack the essential mobility to go to where the jobs are.

Success Stories from India


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The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) has been organizing women
in the informal sector in India since 1972. It was one of the first organizations
globally to realize the potential of using IT for the productive growth of the
informal sector. SEWA is establishing Technology Information Centres in 11
districts of Gujarat to provide computer awareness training and basic
computer skills for their “barefoot managers”, build the capacity of women
organizers and leaders, and strengthen their members’ micro-enterprises.
Electronic networking is expected to strengthen the connections between the
various cooperatives working in different sectors and areas.

IT for barefoot managers (Source: http://www.sewa.org)

Community radio in Andhra Pradesh has become popular due to development
of Mana Radio, a community radio station run by members of the women's
Self Help Groups (SHG) in Orvakal village, Kurnool district, Andhra
Pradesh. Realizing the role that Community Media can play in development,
empowerment and the right to information.

Budhikote Cable Radio Network is another example run by 36 women's self-
help groups in the Indian village of Budhikote are running a cable radio
network, first set up by UNESCO. With a contribution of 50 rupees every
month from each woman, the network has grown to cover 250 of the 750
households of the village. The audio programs are narrowcast from the
Budhikote Community Multi-media Center, where the women use computers
to edit and produce the radio programmes on relevant issues, such as organic
farming, sericulture, health, local electricity and water problems.

There are many more cases of similar and different nature, which have
encouraged the NGOs, the government and the funding agencies to expedite
women’s development through ICT. From managing water distribution at the
village-level to standing for local elections and having access to lifelong
learning opportunities, ICT is opening up new vistas of development. The

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Information and Communication Technologies are for everyone and women
have to be an equal beneficiary of the advantages offered by the technology.
Moreover, the benefits accrued from the synergy of knowledge and ICT cannot
be restricted to the upper strata of the society and have to freely flow to all
segments of the women population.

Further more, various types of training programme conducted by the UNDP under
its project in Gujarat. The project will provide direct trainings to 3400 trainers.
These trainers in turn will educate the community using the innovative approaches
of community media. More importantly the indirect beneficiaries of the project will
be more than 2, 40, 000 members will be benefited through the project in 120
villages, 52 blocks and 6 districts of Gujarat and Bihar.

Let me draw your more attention that the ICT school for Empowerment of women
focuses on:

Vocational courses such as journalism, telecaller training, voice & voice editing,
digital documentation, web designing, accounting with Tally, screen printing,
computer hardware training and orientation, language training, advanced computer
training, DTP training and other technical training.

Role of Global Agencies:
However, in order to measure empowerment, there is major role for the World Bank
and some of the International Agencies to play:
 First and the foremost is to invest both time and resources in the process that
lead to empowerment. It is a slow process, so do not rush with money. Have
time, have patience.
 To create infrastructure facilities with approaches that facilitate and
strengthen the process of empowerment. For example, this is by way of
setting up:

a) Network of Barefoot Managers Schools-to enable the poor acquire
the needed management skills. This will help them reach the mainstream of
economic management.
b) Network of Trade Facilitation Centres: that will act as a buffer, to
enable the local poor reach global markets. It will prepare the poor to reach the
markets. At the same time help them absorb the shocks of the markets and the
pressures and pull of the markets.
c) Livelihood Security Funds –that helps poor identify their needs and
plan for development. This fund strengthens and promotes livelihoods by supporting
rural local employment through (1) Fodder Banks (2) Watershed Development.
d) Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Centres.

Finally, the most important is the recognition of the poor women’s efforts of
organizing

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and their own local organizations. Give due recognition and representation to
Community
Based Organization, People Organizations in the empowering processes, may it be
at Project level or at policy level.

 Another findings would like to share that recently an international
organization APC (The Association for Progressive Communication) in
recent research under the title “How Technology is Being Used to
Perpetrate Violence Against Women – And to Fight it” founded the facts
that:

a) The WHO states that women are disproportionately the victims of violence
worldwide25.
b) The UN estimates that 95% of aggressive behavious, harassment, abusive
language and denigrating images in online space are aimed at women and
come from partners or former male partners26.
c) Both men and women are affected by cyber stalking, but a survey in India
found that victims aged between 18-32 were predominantly female27.
d) Information and communication technologies (ICTs) like the internet and
mobile phones are a double-edged sword-they can be used by abusers to
deepen their control and by survivors of violence to connect to help and by
women’s rights defenders to inform, denounce and strategies to end
violence.

25. World Report on Violence and Health, WHO.
Whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2002/9241545615_eng.pdf.
26. United Nations, deccessods.un.org/TMP/7121883.html.
27. Xu, Weiting, www.genderit.org/es/node/2212.

Reference:

1. www.indg.in
2. www.indiacurrentaffairs.org
3. Data Communication & Computer Network – Dr. Madhulika Jain & Mr.
Satish Jain
4. Mass Communication in India – Dr. Keval J. Kumar
5. Communication Technology and Women Empowerment – Anita Stephen
6. www.wecindia.org
7. Women & Media – Pooja Kataria
8. http://www.articlesbase.com/womens-issues-articles/women-empowerment-
in.india-1971013.html.
9. http://www.sewa.org

18

10. www.sewaresearch.org
11. http://project.aed.org/techequity/India.htm
12. www.comminit.com
13. www.swayam.info/swayam_gi_leaflet_31mar.pdf


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