Information Society Watch

December 2003, Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change

The author of this piece contends that the use of ICTs in realising human development goals is constrained by the larger socio-economic context, which itself is rooted in neo-liberal policies. At WSIS, negotiations between governments, as over anything that implicates global justice, will result in the adoption of the lowest common denominator. Therefore, the author argues that it is not enough to make women managers of community-owned technological assets. Through ICTs, women need to find new opportunities for well-being – knowledge and skills that directly impacts their economic returns, better access to health and education; and new spaces for setting agendas. Unless the design of policies, programmes and projects addresses the politics of gender, they will fail at women’s empowerment. The author provides instances of democratic use of technology including radio and video, which have been appropriated by women to push their agendas; cheaper hardware options and solutions to connectivity that make access in rural areas possible; local language and open source software being used in many projects; content being created in a bottom-up manner;and health, education and livelihood needs of women and the mariginalised being directly impacted through ICT-mediated interventions. She argues that if micro-models and innovations are to become central to the global discourse, the rules of the game in the global arena have to change.

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