“Participatory approaches to include women community in the digital eon”

The information and communication technology (ICT) is the fastest growing sector in the global economy. ICT has the potential to be a powerful tool for the marginalized communities in the developing world and for the individuals to increase their power to learn and to communicate. This technology is also contributing to the imbalance between rich and poor, powerful and marginalized.

ICT can play a crucial role in assisting the stakeholders to access new information as well as enabling them to accumulate, generate, reproduce and disseminate their local content. Equally, availing existing infrastructures and methods offer a mechanism for introduction of ICTs to people who are marginalized from digital resources, through locally adopted objectives and bottom-up processes.

At the current context, women communities are using ICTs to strengthen their individual and organizational capacity at the local, regional and global levels, though the introduction of ICTs has taken place on unequal terms through broader governance, social and economic frameworks.

There is a growing concern that women in particular have to contend with ideological, systemic and institutional barriers in accessing the benefits of ICTs. At the same time, they are unequally affected by the newly developed digital divide. For these reasons, the disparities between women in developed and developing countries are widening. Even, within countries, rural women are often completely excluded from the economic, social and political opportunities that are being created through the use of ICTs.

Therefore, ICTs need to be deployed in such ways that does not replicate or perpetrate gender stereotypes and biases, and does not have unintended negative impacts on women community. Participatory approaches can be introduced for understanding ICT needs for the women. Similarly, participatory processes can be implemented for adult learning based on participant’s analysis of their own environment and power structures. By building on their own knowledge with communication tools and techniques, greater representation and better choices can be ensured for sustainable livelihoods.

Keywords: governance, participatory approach, sustainable livelihood