gisw13_chapters

ly. In the context of ICTs, the majority of women havebeen excluded from the “world wide web”. Womenhave also traditionally been excluded from the informationsociety in general, due to factors workingto their disadvantage such as lack of freedom ofmovement or low levels of education.It is imperative for sustainable development indeveloping, over-populated countries like India forwomen to be free to use technologies to accesseducation and services. The existing and persistentgender inequalities in the labour market, educationand training opportunities, and the allocation offinancial resources for entrepreneurship and businessdevelopment, can negatively impact women’spotential to fully utilise ICTs for economic, socialand political empowerment.In India’s Vision 2020, a strategy for the country’sdevelopment, ICTs are earmarked as one ofthe vital tools to achieve developmental goals. Accordingto a study by the International Centre forResearch on Women on women’s entrepreneurshipand use of information technology, women’s employmentin the IT sector was approximately 35% in2008, which is higher than other sectors. In general,the number of female workers is less than half thenumber of male workers: 68.4 percent of workersare men and 31.6 percent are women, according tothe 2011 Census. 12Policy and political backgroundWomen in India have long been deprived of equalparticipation in the socioeconomic activities of thenation, despite the fact that the Constitution of Indiaguarantees equality (Article 14) to all women, 13 andthe sustainability of India’s developmental effortshinges on their equal participation in the social,political and economic fabric of the nation. Severalarticles in the constitution express provisions foraffirmative action in favour of women, prohibitingall types of discrimination against women to enablethem in all walks of life. Article 15 (1) guarantees nodiscrimination by the state, and equality of opportunityis guaranteed through Article 16. 14 Article 51 (A)(e) guards against practices that are seen to be derogatoryto the dignity of women and also allows forprovisions to be made by the state for securing justand humane conditions of work and for maternityrelief (Article 42). The constitution also recognisesequality of the sexes and provides certain provi-12 censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/economic_activity.aspx13 Constitution of India; Article 14: http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi-english/Const.Pock%202Pg.Rom8Fsss%286%29.pdf14 Constitution of India; Article 16: lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coienglish/Const.Pock%202Pg.Rom8Fsss%286%29.pdfsions under the chapter on Fundamental Rights, butin actual practice they are observed more in breachthan in compliance.Feminist activism in India first picked up momentumin the 1970s when women activists came forwardafter an incident of custodial rape of a tribal girl,Mathura, in 1972. 15 The protests were widely coveredby the national media and forced the governmentto amend the Evidence Act, the Criminal ProcedureCode and the Indian Penal Code, and introduced thecategory of custodial rape for the first time.In 1985, the Department of Women and ChildDevelopment was set up as a part of the Ministryof Human Resource Development to give the muchneeded impetus to the holistic development of womenand children. 16 Later, the National Commissionfor Women (NCW) was set up as a statutory bodyin January 1992 under the National Commission forWomen Act (1990) to review the constitutional andlegal safeguards for women, recommend remediallegislative measures, facilitate redress of grievancesand advise the government on all policy mattersaffecting women. 17The government of India ushered in the newmillennium by declaring the year 2001 as “Women’sEmpowerment Year”, focusing on a vision “wherewomen are equal partners like men.” The NationalMission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) wasformed in 2010 on International Women’s Day, withthe aim of strengthening the all-round developmentalcontext for women.Yet in spite of the various government policies andprogrammes that have been initiated, Indian womencontinue to lag behind men in education, employment,health and political empowerment. Statisticssuch as a sex ratio of 940, 18 a female literacy rate of53.7%, 19 maternal mortality of 450 per 100,000 livebirths, an adolescent fertility rate of 68 births per1,000 live births, and a low level of representationof women in the legislature (below 10%) substantiatethis assertion. Indian women suffer from lifelongsubjugation, discrimination and exploitation. Theplight of rural women is particularly dismal.Despite numerous challenges, social actorshave exploited new technologies as a tool for socialtransformation and gender equality in India. Thesenew technologies have given power to go beyondissues of access and infrastructure to consider thelarger social context and power relations.15 Mathura Rape Case: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathura_rape_case16 The Department of Women and Child Development: wcd.nic.in/17 National Commission for Women: ncw.nic.in/18 www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/sex-ratio-of-india.html19 Female Literacy rate: censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/literacy_and_level_of_education.aspx130 / Global Information Society Watch