gisw13_chapters

• Develop gender-sensitive technical and regulatoryinstruments when addressing ICT policy issuessuch as universal access, regulatory frameworks,licensing, tariff plans, spectrum allocation, infrastructure,and labour policies. Attention is requiredin drawing up a list of ICT policy issues andintegrating gender issues in this.• Encourage and facilitate collaborative action forgender equality among government bodies responsiblefor ICTs.• There is a need to understand that ICT training,adoption and use must be “gender neutral”.• NGOs and the government should come togetherto develop poverty alleviation programmesthrough women-centric initiatives, in particularcircumventing the problems of liberal development.Self-help groups are formed by governmentagencies or NGOs to benefit women memberseconomically and socially by helping them engagein micro-entrepreneurship activities and sharegenerated income between themselves. Womenin India derive access to low-cost financial servicesand learn a process of self-management anddevelopment. These self-help groups can helpwomen take social action, accumulate social capital,practice better economic viability and demonstratea greater sustainability than individualbasedmodels for women’s empowerment.• It is envisaged that the Mobile-based Value AddedServices (mVAS) 33 launched by the governmentof India will provide rural self-help groupswith education, information and training, accessto occupational opportunities, markets, financialservices, government programmes, healthagencies/workers, social agencies/workers,feedback mechanisms, support systems, networking,etc. These self-help groups should besupported by rights organisations working inthe field of ICTs.• There is a need to push basic communicationsservices (and by extension, markets) into therural regions of the country.• Women-centric organisations need to be engagedin decision making concerning the developmentof new technologies in order to participatein their growth and impact.• In India, there are 2.5 million panchayat (localself-government body) members and 2.2 millionelected representatives of which nearly a million33 pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=70578are women. 34 However, the patriarchal culture ofrestricting women to the family domain limitstheir access to new technology. Apparently, thehusbands or other male relatives of approximately89% of elected women representatives(who do not own mobile phones themselves)have mobile phones. This clearly shows thatmost male members of families are influencingpower structures through their women representatives.Because of this, it is necessary forthe Ministry of Panchayati Raj 35 to exclusivelytarget the elected women representatives andhave special capacity-building sessions withthem on how to use mobile phones. Throughthis it should develop strategic plans to move tomobile governance through these representatives.• In the absence of any specific ICT agenda forwomen, who constitute half of India’s population,do we need a “Gender ICT Policy” for thecountry? This policy will certainly go a long wayto increase ICT access by women, especially inrural and remote locations, and for those whoare marginalised among tribal peoples and minorities.This policy framework can take up specificinterventions such as an ICT fellowship programmefor women, digital literacy for women,and access and connectivity cafés for womenonly. The critical ministries in this endeavourcould be the Ministry of Women and Child Developmentin alignment with the Ministry ofCommunications and IT, with collaborative supportfrom bilateral agencies such as UNDP or UNWomen.• A gender gap in internet policy and genderfocusedresearch in India does not expresslyprevent women’s internet access, but it doesrestrict its ability to grow. On the policy front,government policies already aim at increasinginternet access for the general population, specificallywith the rapid take-up of broadband.For example, India has adopted national plansto expand broadband access. Such ICT policyplans are created without reference to genderspecificbarriers that women and girls oftenface, such as safe access to public internet sites.However, a root challenge remains the lack ofexperts at the intersection of technology andgender, and this needs to be addressed. ■34 web.undp.org/comtoolkit/success-stories/ASIA-india-demgov2.shtml35 www.panchayat.gov.in133 / Global Information Society Watch