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Can ICTs Empower Rural Women? By - Rina Mukherji Rina Mukherji has spent more than one a half decades (17 years to be precise) in the Indian print media. She has written on practically every topic under the sun- business, politics, science, gender issues, child rights, the environment, films, literature, public health and human rights so far. She has worked for several national newspapers in Mumbai and Kolkata, and freelanced for nearly all major newspapers and magazines in the country. She also holds a doctorate in African Studies, and has several academic articles to her credit

Dr M S Swaminathan has been talking of making every village a knowledge center under his Mission 2007 plan.

When I tried to superimpose Dr Swaminathan’s grand vision on the rural India I have known as a journalist, I was immediately reminded of Tusu Rani Mahato-a plucky girl from a backward caste/tribal village in the back of beyond of West Bengal.

It was on a visit to Hesla village in Purulia that I met Tusu Rani Mahato. A community health worker, Tusu Rani proudly told me that she was the only individual with a higher secondary education in the area . She was also the only female in the entire taluka to have achieved the honor.

When one looked around, it was not too tough to fathom why. The little village nestling in the hills off Purulia town had no electricity. Schools were there, but only up to the primary level. High school was some 10 km away. There were no motorable roads. There were no phone lines at all, and neither did government buses come that way. A retired Class IV government employee had started a private bus service to Purulia town. But often, the bus would be emptied halfway for want of passengers. No one dared venture to town for fear of not being able to return by nightfall, unless faced by dire emergency.

Tusu Rani, of course, was an exception. And for this, she had her loyal bicycle to rely on. For every phone call she needed to make to Kolkata once a week, She would pedal 17 km to Purulia town.

Tall and strapping, Tusu Rani on her bicycle was an imposing sight. She was glad that a journalist from Kolkata was visiting her village, and happier that I wanted to document what she and her dedicated band of community workers were trying to do. The government hospital was 10 km away, and rarely had enough doctors to attend to patients brought in.

In the absence of an ambulance or phones, the sick were transported atop a charpoy by neighbors. In the monsoon, the sick patient had to brave the elements covered by a polyethylene sheet. Often, the patient expired on the way. Infant and maternal mortality was high here. It was in such a situation that Tusu Rani and her team was trying their best to spread the word on basic hygiene and health to save lives. The idea was to get people to realize that prevention was better than cure. You had to avoid becoming sick, lest you died without a cure.

But it was a tough job. Water was scarce in the region. How did you keep clean when you lacked running water in the vicinity?

Water scarcity was also responsible for large-scale migration of people in search of employment from the village. Many found work in brick kilns in and around north-24 parganas, where families lived a precarious existence. The day I visited the village, a family was loudly mourning the death of a young son who had been bitten by a snake in the kiln he was employed. His young wife sat numb with a 10-day old infant son in her arms.

The authorities have embarked on setting up rainwater harvesters all over Purulia and neighboring water-scarce districts this year. Matters should improve; but it is an uphill task.

The hype and hooplah surrounding the idea of an information society has totally ignored the likes of Tusu Rani Mahato and her people. There is a lot of talk on ICTs bridging the gender and digital divide in connection with the 2nd World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) at Tunis.

Few realize that there are women like Tusu Rani who are better empowered than many men through sheer grit and determination.

In the absence of transport, roads, water and power, ICTs cannot deliver anything. A computer needs uninterrupted power minus voltage fluctuation to function properly. If communication is desired for development, traditional means like Chhau, folk songs, puppetry and drama can work much better. Even the radio is a superior device.

ICTs like the computer or the internet can never bridge the divide- even if the initial hurdles of literacy and language are overcome.

The infrastructural basics must come in first.

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