Teleuse@BOP3: A Qualitative Study - LIRNEasia

households. Such class leveler argument is, however, not mentioned in India or Sri Lanka, where it seems, all
respondents and especially, the men have a very matter of fact attitude towards ownership. The perception in these
2 countries is that mobile phones help people remain in greater connectivity and facilitate work but it has not
fundamentally changed who they are as individuals and their respective positions in society.
The pride associated with phone ownership, seems to be particularly high as seen in the urban male group
discussions in Pakistan and Bangladesh. This results in misleading perceptions around ownership in both the
countries but is striking in Bangladesh in particular. In Bangladesh, in the urban male group discussion group, more
than 50% of the respondents seem to make very strong claims about having a phone since 2002. It is only after
repeated confirmation seeking that it emerges that while they have used a mobile first around 2002; their individual
ownerships are mostly in the horizon of two years. The most recent owners have had their own phones for 10
months to a year.
In contrast, when it comes to mobile ownership among female respondents, in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the
female respondents, especially housewives, seem to have a difficulty in perceiving the phone as theirs although they
may have received it from their husbands or brothers almost up to two years back. The women see these phones
variably as a phone for the house or their husbands’ first phone but not as their own. This is largely because of the
way in which the phones have come to them.
In the case of most housewives, we see that they have had very little say in the choice, purchase or transitioning of
the phone as opposed to the South East Asian countries. As pointed out by several female respondents in these
countries, while the younger wives have been taken to mobile shops to see various models, the older wives have
simply been given a phone that their husbands chose to purchase keeping in mind their understandings of what their
wives will be able to manage, the male member’s tentative budget and their own perceptions around ease of use and
durability. The younger wives, on the other hand, being more comfortable with technology, willing to explore and
overall more aware of the options available in the market, have been taken to shops for preliminary surveys. Samira
Alam from Dhaka mentions that she had selected the model which she wanted during such a visit but her husband
bought her a lower end model without taking her consent on another day because he felt he can not afford her
choice. Consequently, while she is satisfied about having a mobile, she believes that one day she will purchase a
phone of her choice. Similarly, for Vaishali from Mumbai, it is difficult for her to consider her current mobile as her
own since it was her husband’s and he initially used to leave it at home. Even now when her husband has another
mobile and she is free to consider this handset as her own, she feels it is a house phone more than her own phone.
(More examples - Vani in Srirangapattana and Naaji in Karachi). Acquiring a phone whether through purchase or
handing down, is not easy for the female respondents in South Asia. Their mobile phones are acquired after
repeated mentions, hints and requests ranging from the casual to the forceful.
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