As the COVID-19 crisis wanes, India and Indians are embracing the slivers of normalcy with vigour and enthusiasm. The new normal of living with the virus and working through its waves and surges has become a way of life. Green shoots of post-pandemic recovery, growth, and optimism have begun to take root. Alongside, a silent revolution is underway as well, marked by several dots that are not readily connected—a digital India has emerged even as we battled the global affliction.
By 2026, India will have 1 billion smartphone users, with a major push in demand originating from rural areas. The nation’s strides towards fiberising its villages are providing a massive boost to Internet use, and helping mainstream new skills and opportunities involving Internet-enabled devices and platforms.
Women are at the heart of this upsurge in the demand for information and communication technologies (ICTs). The percentage of women in India who have a mobile phone that they use themselves, unsupervised by family, has increased from 45.9 percent to 54 percent over the past four years, with a clear correlation emerging between women’s adoption of ICTs and their access to better education and livelihood opportunities, and health and financial services. Two policy targets could advance these positive trends: mobile ownership and access must reach the yet uncovered universe of 46 percent of Indian women; and women’s independent use of family-owned ICTs must be increased and normalised through community-focused interventions.
The same four-year period has also seen extraordinary growth—from 53 percent to nearly 80 percent—in bank accounts held and operated independently by women. Indeed, the link between women’s mobile ownership and financial inclusion is robust, with over 22.5 percent of women in India using their mobile phones for financial transactions. Crucially, women’s self-empowerment through technology, and the demand for digital devices, services, and infrastructure are forming a virtuous cycle. India could, therefore, set itself the bold goal of achieving at least 50 percent mobile use for financial transactions among women by 2030. This would catalyse women’s access to banking and financial inclusion. It would also accelerate India’s progress towards Target 5.b of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—enhancing ICT use to promote women’s empowerment—an area where India currently sees itself as an ‘aspirant’.
The stories behind the data tend to remain underexplored and obscure. Little is known of the women across vast swathes of rural and peri-urban India who have made it their mission to lead their communities into a new digital future. Virtually nothing is known of the odds they have overcome to defy tradition, acquire digital literacy and competencies, build their communities’ trust, and then transform lives with technology.
Aspirations, Access & Agency tells the stories of women leaders who have emerged as agents of technological change and socioeconomic inclusion and are using ICTs to help their communities build pathways to better futures. Each story narrates a woman’s leadership journey and explores how she evolved as a digital enabler—banking the unbanked, connecting people to essential e-services, facilitating access to welfare schemes and benefits at the last mile, promoting entrepreneurship by helping build digital marketplaces, using tech to strengthen livelihoods, advocating for e-health, and much more. This compendium aims to raise awareness about these women’s exemplary work. It also seeks to demonstrate the transformational impact ICTs could have on communities and governance.
Well-crafted policies allow personal aspirations to bloom. The lived experiences of these women show the importance of policy initiatives that support digital literacy and skilling, such as the National Digital Literacy Mission, the National Skill Development Mission, and the recently launched Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood. Equally, communities must be sensitised about welfare schemes that could change lives and how digital tools can be used to access benefits. The women’s stories included here demonstrate how successful policy implementation and access to technology can drive change.
The evolution of mobile phones has shaped women’s trajectories of empowerment. Most of the women profiled here first used rudimentary keypad phones owned by their families, which permitted calls and messages only. Many families then graduated to feature phones, which included a simple graphic interface, basic bandwidth for Internet services, and limited applications and multimedia capabilities. These devices nonetheless expanded the women’s understanding of the possibilities afforded by ICTs. But it is the smartphone—advanced mobile phones akin to microcomputers—that has truly liberated them and helped them become the change agents they are today.
Super
You must be logged in to post a comment.