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Gender-differentiated Impact on Minority Youth of Basic Computer Education in Mumbai City
Abstract
Young people from marginalized communities are applying newly acquired technical know-how to leapfrog the socioeconomic levels of their families and communities. This article explores the impact of basic computer education on the lives of young men and women from a Muslim minority community of India. Twenty-seven young women and 25 young men (median age = 23 years) were interviewed 2 months after they completed a 1-year diploma course, and their reports were content analyzed. It was found that the basic skills program results in multiplier, psychological, social, educational, and economic benefits and also increases computer ownership and usage. Computer education of an individual contributes to a social climate conducive for family, friends, and neighbors to become computer literate and provides a valuable focus on computer literacy programs. Computer education can be a key gender equalizer, as through it women see new possibilities open for them. The psychological and economic impact is greater for young women; young men, on the other hand, register more social and educational benefits. Through application of computer knowledge, women experience a boost in self-confidence and see a possibility of an independent income. On the other hand, young men experience higher positive cues from family and friends. The pursuit of college along with computer learning and their stated aspiration to go in for high-end computer courses gives men a distinct advantage in a knowledge-based society.
... ), lack of confidence(Ogbonnaya-Ogburu et al. 2019;Rommes et al. 2005), lack of self-esteem(Khan and Ghadially 2009;Rommes et al. 2005) and lack of time(Poveda 2018). Moreover, in specific populations like the elderly or differently-abled, some common challenges include mechanical troubles in holding or positioning the mouse(Martínez-Ballesté et al. 2004), slow typing(Meethongjan and Tachpetpaiboon 2015). ...
... ;Huerta and Sandoval-Almazán 2007;Irizarry et al. 2002;Khan and Ghadially 2009;Li-Tsang et al. 2007). Likewise, (Ogbonnaya-Ogburu et al. 2019) highlighted the lack of possibilities to use ICT at home, at work, or in other settings. ...
The governments and private sectors have taken several national or regional digital literacy training programs (DLTPs) to mitigate digital inequalities. However, there are noticeable differences in impact and outcomes produced by programs. Since digital literacy is essential for any technical vocational education and training (TVET), this study explores possible barriers influencing the effectiveness of DLTPs at different level levels. Relevant publications were synthesized and coded using a systematic literature review to link main research findings with specific barrier categories. It was found that at the administrative level, policy planning and administrative designing, whereas at the training level, infrastructure followed by training and pedagogy emerged as the most critical determinants for the effectiveness of DLTPs. At an individual level, lack of family support significantly affect learning behaviour. A strategic model for the effective implementation of DLTPs is provided. This study constitutes an essential input for research on the digital literacy training literature providing educators and program stakeholders with a reinforced understanding of various ways to manage DLTPs at different levels. Consequently, it closes some identified knowledge gaps and offers additional insights to improve the DLTPs performance at the community level.
... Similar findings were reported by other studies (e.g. Khan & Ghadially, 2009;Miwa et al., 2017;Mukherjee et al., 2019;Zyskowski, 2020). Our findings are strikingly similar to those of a prior review research by Scheerder et al. (2017). ...
Digital literacy training programs (DLTPs) are influential in developing digital skills to help build a more inclusive and participatory ecosystem. This study reviews 86 studies related to DLTPs for marginalised populations in developed and developing countries. It aims to understand (a) the profile of DLTPs, (b) the digital competences incorporated in the training curriculum and (c) tangible outcomes of Internet use post-training. The review indicated that developed countries focus more on developing digital literacy in elderly populations. In contrast, the focus still lies on developing digital literacy among people with low skills and education levels in developing countries. The training curricula focus mainly on developing information-seeking and communication competencies, besides the basic operations of digital devices. Most of the studies reported an increase in the personal-level outcomes around health, leisure and self-actualisation achieved post-training. This study can help policymakers, practitioners, and educational researchers improve the scope and quality of educational programs and contribute to people's digital empowerment and well-being.
... Mijumbi (2002) finds that gender inequalities, inadequate gender-sensitive policies supporting women's ICT usage, remote geographic locations with less dependable transportation infrastructure, poor ICT infrastructure in rural areas, illiteracy and lack of self-efficacy to operate ICTs create barriers for African women to own and use ICTs. Khan and Ghadially (2009) observe sociocultural and religious beliefs to be the strongest predictors of Muslim women's use of ICTs in India. Patil et al. (2009) conclude that oppressive gender relations and men's hegemony inhibit women's access to and ownership of ICTs in India. ...
In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most widely owned information and communication technology (ICT) in the world. This study investigates the factors responsible for the inability of 245 female slum-dwellers in India earning less than $2 a day to own a mobile phone. Open, axial and selective coding of survey responses shows that socio-cultural, economic, demographic, psychological, communication-related, and health related inequalities in the lives of the respondents create eight economic barriers precluding respondents from owning some of the least expensive mobile phones worth $15 or so on installments of $1 a month.
... The existing literature on the gender digital divide suggests that cultural factors lead to economic barriers, making it challenging for women to own ICTs in male-dominated societies like India. Khan and Ghadially (2009) observed that cultural beliefs were the strongest predictors of Muslim women's ownership of ICTs in India. Gender roles, one of the manifestations of cultural values, affect female ICT users the most in India (Vodanovich et al., 2010). ...
Economic barriers play the most significant role in precluding women from owning ICTs in developing nations. This qualitative study explores the factors responsible for creating economic barriers for 245 women in India, which prevent them from owning a mobile phone. Study findings reveal the specific ways in which cultural factors like (i) the long power distance between men and women, (ii) the gender role defined by Indian society for women, (iii) women's attitudes of avoiding uncertainty, and (iv) collectivistic practices, create economic barriers for the financially independent study participants. Due to the unfair economic disadvantages generated by the above cultural factors, it becomes challenging for the participants earning a little less than $2 a day to own some of the least expensive mobile phone handsets worth $15 or so on installments of $1 a month.
This paper equips researchers for addressing a wide range of data collection challenges experienced when interacting with marginalized communities as part of ICT4D projects in developing countries. This secondary research categorizes data collection challenges reported in multiple disciplines, and summarizes the guidance from the past literature to deal with the challenges. The open, axial, and selective coding of data collection challenges reported by the past literature suggests that it is necessary to manage scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, and risks for addressing the data collection challenges. This paper illustrates the ways to manage these seven dimensions using (a) the success stories of data collection in the past, (b) the lessons learned by researchers during data collection as documented by the past literature, and (c) the advice they offer for collection data from marginalized communities in developing countries.
A significant number of ICT4D projects funded by the developed world cannot meet their objectives. One cause of failures of ICT4D projects is likely to be the failures or shortcomings of the field research component since it is an integral part of a majority ICT4D projects. Hence, it becomes an imperative for researchers to be able to manage the challenges encountered in ICT4D field research. Project management principles (PMP) concerned with the scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, and risks related to a variety of projects may help researchers to manage ICT4D field research challenges. However, PMP developed in and for the developed world cannot be applied as is; they need to be customized to a developing nation context. This paper illustrates the culturally sensitive application of PMP to manage contextual challenges mainly consisting of gender-related challenges in field research with poor female mobile phone users in rural India. The communications and risk management principles were most useful when collecting quantitative and qualitative data from one of the most disadvantaged communities in the world. The insights into gender relations between the male researcher, the female local mediator, the female study participants, and their male family members would better equip researchers and practitioners to manage gender-related challenges in ICT4D field research.
This article examines women's agency in the Information Technology (IT) industry and is based on field research in two cities in India: Bangalore and Delhi. We looked at both the software industry and IT-enabled services, particularly through the perceptions of women and men workers and managers within the IT industry. While a large number of women continue to work in gendered homes and work sites, balancing work and domestic responsibilities with little help from the men, they do, however, carry on an ongoing struggle to challenge embedded patriarchal relations within the family and in the industry. Conceding that there are socially sanctioned gender inequalities in the market, women prefer to work outside the home in an attempt to improve their social position and construct greater scope to enhance their agency, than be subject to family-based dependency and coercion.
Report on a survey of alumni of the Pakistan Library Association’s Computer Training Center in Lahore to determine the impact of the Certificate in Library Automation (CLA) on librarianship in Pakistan. The survey provided information on: the profile of the respondents; their participation in computer training before and after taking the CLA; the impact of their training on their success in job seeking; their access to and use of computers; their participation in library automation projects and other auto-mation related activities; and suggestions regarding further courses and the improvement of the Training Centre. The results showed that the courses were attended mainly by comparatively young professional librarians, most of whom were working in Lahore. Their computer training contributed a lot to their success in getting new jobs. Most of them had access to computer facilities in their offices and use them daily, and have participated significantly in automation activities in their libraries. Many also applied their computing knowledge in writing books, articles, delivering lectures and providing consultancy services. Many suggestions were made for improving the courses.
This article reviews research on gender differences in power and their effect on social influence. Evidence indicates that men generally possess higher levels of expert and legitimate power than women do and that women possess higher levels of referent power than men do. These differences are reflected, to some extent, in the influence strategies used by men and women and, more clearly, in gender differences in social influence. Women generally have greater difficulty exerting influence than men do, particularly when they use influence that conveys competence and authority. These findings indicate that gender differences in influence are mediated by gender differences in power.
DesiCrew is a unique Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) initiative that provides high volume data related services at an affordable cost from rural areas across India. The model provides cost cutting alternatives to urban clients and new sources of income and employment to the villagers, by leveraging Internet technology. The DesiCrew central team in Chennai manages training of rural workforce, distribution and monitoring of work, quality control and client interaction all remotely. In this paper, we describe the Rural BPO model and one specific application, data entry of forms. We describe the software, Pegasus, developed for this purpose and explain the management of the distributed workforce. Full Text at Springer, may require registration or fee
By drawing on her extensive fieldwork in India and on the adjacent theoretical literature, Barbara Harriss-White describes the working of the Indian economy through its most important social structures of accumulation. Successive chapters explore a range of topics including labour, capital, the state, gender, religious plurality, caste and space. Despite the complexity of the subject, the book is vivid and compelling. The author's intimate knowledge of the country enables the reader to experience the Indian local scene and to engage with the precariousness of daily life. Her conclusion challenges the prevailing notion that liberalisation releases the economy from political interference and leads to a postscript on the economic base for fascism in India. This is an intelligent book, first published in 2002, by a distinguished scholar, for students of economics, as well as for those studying the region.
This article highlights a case study of a non-governmental organization in Costa Rica that initiated a pilot program in 2002 to expand information and communication technology to 100 women nationwide through a free computer class. This program was developed in order to increase women’s access to and control over technology. It is important to analyze the success of this and other programs from the perspective of the participants and to understand how such programs change behaviors in the public and private sphere, on the micro and macro levels. The article specifically assesses how and in what ways this program altered job experiences for the women participants, modified their role within the family, reformulated the individual’s perspective of self, and empowered the students. The data was collected over several months offieldwork and includes over 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with 33 respondents. Qualitative methods are used to analyze the individual experiences of the students in the program to better understand the successes and failures of this type of program in the context of development for women in the Third World.
This article highlights a case study of a non-governmental organization in Costa Rica that initiated a pilot program in 2002 to expand information and communication tech nology to 100 women nationwide through a free computer class. This program was de veloped in order to increase women's access to and control over technology. It is important to analyze the success of this and other programs from the perspective of the participants and to understand how such programs change behaviors in the public and private sphere, on the micro and macro levels. The article specifically assesses how and in what ways this program altered job experiences for the women participants, modified their role within the family, reformulated the individual's perspective of self, and empowered the students. The data was collected over several months offieldwork and includes over 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with 33 respondents. Quali tative methods are used to analyze the individual experiences of the students in the program to better understand the successes and failures of this type of program in the context of development for women in the Third World.
In the geographical literature very little attention has been given to the perceptions, aspirations or cognitive state of new undergraduate students. This paper addresses the issue of antecedents to empowerment, the contention being that empowerment and student autonomy correlate strongly with self-confidence and that this needs to be enhanced through the acquisition of enabling skills. Analysis of a questionnaire survey suggests that many students are enthusiastic, well motivated, keen to do well and aware of the importance of developing their skills. Others lack self-confidence and are ambivalent about becoming autonomous individuals, showing a marked disinclination towards participatory decision-making and independent learning. A gender bias is revealed with females, 73 per cent of whom were under 21 years of age, significantly less confident than males, yet more likely to prioritise a need to become more autonomous.
This paper reports êndings of a study undertaken in late 1999 which aimed to identify and analyse the differences in use, by gender, of the Internet. A review of the literature of the differences in use, by gender, of computers generally is provided. The study involved students at Loughborough University and members of the public at libraries in Loughborough and Slough. The results of this (fairly limited) study show that female use, interest and conêdence in using the Internet is high but, in comparison with male respondents the females had not taken to the Internet as rapidly.
ICTs provide knowledge and resources that hold potential for women 's empowerment. Access to technology is not only the availability of hardware, but a training approach that facilitates computer adoption. This study examined the adoption of computer tech nology by novice urban women. It explored the contribution of psychological variables such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease ofuse, subjective norm, and computer self- efficacy to behavioral intention to adopt computers. Both familial (encouragement, fi nances, a computer literate member, computer ownership, and access) and institutional (proximity of the training center, preferred gender of the trainer, attributes, and role) support variables were considered. Results indicated that women adopt computer technology if it is evaluated to be useful to them and their family. Familial support such as a computer literate family member and a family computer and institutional support such as convenience of the training center and a patient and flexible trainer were found to be significant factors in facilitating computer adoption.
The present study aims at investigating "Muslim women's work participation in India "based on: population census in 2001. In this study has been used of "descriptive research". Results have indicated that Muslim constitutes 13.4 percent of India's population. Indeed, India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. Sex ratio among Muslim population at national level is 936. Illiterate rate of Muslim women is high and they have not been able to take full advantage in society. There also exists a wide gap between the works participation rate of males and females. In additional, a significant part of Muslim women are recorded as unskilled work sources in the country.
In this article the connection between entrepreneurship and ethnic identity is examined. Two central arguments are put forward. First, market forces and private sector development are diminishing the influence of the clan on Nuosu-Yi entrepreneurs. Although the clan can fulfil important functions in the start-up of new ventures, it also tends to become a burden on successful enterprises. Concurrently, clan-transcending institutions are emerging. Secondly, entrepreneurs oscillate between their roles as bearers of tradition on the one hand and harbingers of modernity on the other. Furthermore I argue that the drawing of borders between Nuosu-Yi and Han entrepreneurs is a significant expression of ethnic identity. Identity is not just an individual process but also a collective one. Consequently the identity-giving impact of entrepreneurship can take place only in interaction with other groups (Han). Nuosu-Yi entrepreneurs develop ethnic consciousness as there exists a strong cultural nationalism among entrepreneurs as well as among other Yi. Their goal is a desire for respect within the Chinese nation state that could be obtained by means of entrepreneurship and economic development.
The 2001 Report, like all previous Human Development Reports, is about people. It is about how people can create and use technology to improve their lives. It is also about forging new public policies to lead the revolutions in information and communications technology and biotechnology in the direction of human development. This Report looks specifically at how new technologies will affect developing countries and poor people. Many people fear that these technologies may be of little use to the developing world—or that they might actually widen the already savage inequalities between North and South, rich and poor. Without innovative public policy, these technologies could become a source of exclusion, not a tool of progress. The needs of poor people could remain neglected, new global risks left unmanaged. But managed well, the rewards could be greater than the risks. The technology divide does not have to follow the income divide. Throughout history, technology has been a powerful tool for human development and poverty reduction.
In the present information society, technical education has acquired immense importance as the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) hold potential for bridging socio-economic divides and empowering the marginalized such as women and minority groups. This paper explores the access and use of computer/Internet and examines how these affect empowerment levels among young men and women. This paper considers the psychological, social, educational and economic benefits following from computer education and usage of computer and Internet technology. Data was collected from 155 young girls (N=82) and boys (N=73) from three computer training centers in Mumbai. Statistical tests such as t-tests, 2-way ANOVA and chi-squares were computed to compare male and female subjects on empowerment and ownership/access and use. The figures for ownership and home Internet connection were low for the entire sample. Computer training centre and cyber cafe are important points of access for females and males respectively. Further, it is found that young women report higher gains from computer learning and technology use, hence, computer education can be a key gender equalizer. In light of the above, policy measures to widen access and provide subsidized training are suggested.
This Comment reflects upon the relationship between gender and technology, and how it has been theorized in recent decades. I argue that while feminist approaches have had considerable influence on mainstream social studies of science and technology, tensions remain. I go on to explore the proliferation of feminist research which conceptualizes technology as culture. I suggest that the contemporary focus on cultural representation and consumption, exciting and productive as it is in many respects, has contributed to the neglect of design studies. These are necessary to fully elucidate how gender relations figure in the construction of technology.
This paper reviews the prevailing policy environment to evaluate its efficacy in ensuring that India is successfully able to address these challenges in the education sector. Given the well established constraints on public funding of education, the role of the private sector specially in the provision of higher education and technical training has been highlighted. The paper suggests that India needs to have a proactive demand based policy towards private higher education including foreign institutions/universities desirous of setting up campus in India or entering into joint-ventures. This has to be combined with the establishment of a regulatory mechanism that ensures that students’ welfare is not compromised and quality standards are maintained. [ICRIER Working Paper 179, May 2006]
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