Many people in developing countries are seizing the benefits of advanced technology. In Africa, cellphone and Internet use is growing at twice the global rate. Even Facebook is becoming widely available: the social networking site recently announced free services for mobile phone users in India and other countries where slow Internet connections and low incomes deter potential users.
But Anita Gurumurthy, a Bangalore-based researcher in information and communication technologies (ICTs), says there's more to the story than a narrowing digital divide.
"It's not just about technology as tools," she says, but as vehicles of social change. She argues that women in traditionally male-dominated societies are being empowered.
"When the Dalits [South Asia's untouchables] are trained on mobile phones, there's an immediate equilibrium," says Gurumurthy. "If handled well - we're not looking to start a revolution here - there can be positive change."
The power of ICTs Gurumurthy is an IDRC grantee and heads a research network that is studying the links between ICTs and women's rights as citizens.
In recent years, a variety of international laws have sought to guarantee women's equality. Yet in some countries women still bear the brunt of unfair laws and practices. And even where women's human rights are recognized and inform national laws, many women lack the freedom and means to claim them.
ICTs, however, have granted women access to information, markets, and networks traditionally closed to them. Cultural and state authorities may limit women's voices in the public sphere, but the blogosphere is more difficult to control. This is not to say that ICTs are a panacea, however. Technology can also be disempowering for citizens, for example by facilitating state surveillance and censorship.
"This is all pretty cutting-edge stuff because the technology is so new," says Laurent Elder, of IDRC's Pan-Asia Networking program. "The kinds of problems that you're dealing with - gender inequality, democratic deficit, then the introduction of technology and how it solves these problems, are quite complex."
Thinking outside the box Gurumurthy says "citizenship rights" provide a crucial vehicle through which to explore this rugged terrain. Researchers are examining the extent to which cellphones allow women to connect to public information and engage in activism. They are looking at how social relationships play out online. And they are asking whether it's possible to create an online space that is safe - where data cannot be mined.
Crucially, research will also include suggestions for policymakers grappling with how best to empower women through ICTs. "[The concept of] citizenship allows us to look at all this digital phenomena in a critical way beyond just giving a woman a mobile phone," says Gurumurthy.
"We are experiencing a new society in the making - it takes thinking outside of the box."
SOURCE: IDRC.CA
