Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Women and the Information Society
Convener: Pieke Hoekstra, the Netherlands

ICTs and Empowerment of Women: Some case studies from India
Suman Jain, Indian Federation of University Women’s Associations

Information and communication technologies [ICTs] are emerging as a powerful tool for gender empowerment in a developing country like India. There has been rapid growth in the ICT sector since the late 1980s. Since the 1990s, IT-Enabled Services – Business Processing Outsourcing sectors alone grew at 59%, and employment had reached 106,000 [National Association for Software and Service Companies, 2004]. But there is a strong digital divide in society. According to the Cisco Learning Institute [2004], women constitute only 23% of India’s internet users. This situation is caused by structural gender inequalities, including unequal access to education, lack of financial resources, traditional cultural beliefs and practices. While ICTs may intensify gender inequalities in developing countries, they have a great potential to empower women. Many projects for women’s empowerment through ICTs have been implemented by NGOs and governments – for example, self-help groups of rural women in Andhrapradesh, an e-commerce web-site called India Shop [2005] in Tamil Nadu, the Self-Employed Women’s Association[ SEWA] Ahmedabad [2004]. ICTs and the internet offer great benefits to women, who gain confidence and become more valuable in market place. Economic resources gained through ICTs enable a woman to take decisions for herself. Thus ICTs are emerging as a powerful tool for gender empowerment by providing adequate information at any time, by providing employment opportunities and value added services. This paper will analyze some case studies from India and examine how women’s power within has been enhanced through their access to and control of Information and Communication by use of ICTs.

Suman Jain is Reader in Economics, LakshmiBai College, Delhi University. She holds an M.A. in Economics and a B.Ed. from Delhi University and has completed a Diploma in Distance Education from Indira Gandhi Open University. Active in several roles in the Indian Federation of University Women’s Associations (Vice-President 2005-2006), she is an ardent environmentalist.