locating gender in ictd projects - dhan foundation's village information centres

8/8/2019 Locating gender in ICTD projects - DHAN Foundation's Village Information Centres

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oers a package o services

catering to a variety o

development and livelihoods

needs. In this process, women

are the main ocus and orm the

bulk o telecentre operators.

ICTD implementationmodel and actors

Tele-conerencing acilities or

agriculture, health, veterinary

science and educational support,

as well as basic computer

training, are the main services

made available at the centres.

In addition, communicationservices and inormation

on development topics and

government schemes are also

oered. The development ocus

is always maintained through

eorts to restrict certain kinds

o activities at the centre, e.g.

leisure browsing or Internet

malpractices.

The selection o technology

platorms is not completely

planned and is a result o

the emergent context with

its multiple circumstances

and experiences. Thus the

development o appropriate

technology choices evolves

according to the communities

needs and demands. In

the initial stages, specic

obstacles impacted community

participation, e.g. the quality

and cost o electricity supply.

The overall approach to content

and applications development

is to ensure that the technology

blends with the day-to-day

activities o the villagers and

meets the specic needs o the

community.

DHAN Foundation emphasises

the importance o monitoring the

actual impact o interventions

in the lives o those who have

accessed them. In this regard,

there are several prerequisites:

having domain-specic

inormation in regional languages

and in ormats that are

comprehensible to local people,

and which involve peoples own

contributions in the creation and

modication o inormation and

services based on their needs.

In the selection o the operator,

there was a strong eort to

employ young girls or women.

The motivation levels o the

operators, their orientation

towards the community and

ability to work in a team were

critical actors, much more than

their age or education level.

DHAN has developed detailed

training modules (technical

aspects, accounting, handling

classes, public speaking, etc.) inorder to build the capacity o the

operators rom the beginning and

through their work. Experienced

operators assist newer ones in

holding events and preparing

reports. Mr. Muthu stresses that

operators must recognise the

cause and the service motive

and understand what working

in the development sector isabout. A parallel strategy is

used in convincing the operators

amilies and ellow community

members o the signicance o

their work.

Although the centre was rst

located in a central place, DHAN

Foundation realised quickly

that such location preventedwomen rom visiting because

men were crowding around the

centre much o the time. The

centre was thereore moved

to a home-like environment

so that the location did not

hamper access by any group.

In addition, while the project

was rooted in the very strong

Kalanjiam sel-help groups

(SHGs) movement indigenous

to that region and supported

by DHAN, a careul balance

had to be struck between

recognising the importance o

the SHG women, but without

giving them exclusive access to

the centre or the inormation

available. Accordingly, the usagepatterns in telecentres revealed

no dierence between SHG

members vis--vis other village

women or community members.

As many o DHANs ICT services

are likely to challenge existing

power relations, especially

those with government ocials,

the organisation has adopted

a multi-pronged approach to

securing their cooperation and

support. This includes: the

participation o local ocials

in video-conerencing acilities;

stressing the potential o better

access to government services

or communities; encouraging

relationships between operators

and ocials; and inviting ocials

as special guests or unctions

and inaugurations.

Challenges and positiveoutcomes

DHANs empowerment strategy

has brought about signicant

gains or operators, evidenced by

their testimonies. Many women

operators have stayed with theprogramme since its initiation.

The empowering outcomes

have beneted not just the

IT or Change Case Study, Village Inormation Centres

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operators in their own personal

lie and growth, but also the

organisation. Indeed, the

presence o women operators

has had a denite impact on

women users requenting the

centre or a variety o services

like access to birth certicates

or tele-medicine acilities.

Also, it was repeatedly pointed

out that while male operators

were reluctant to canvass and

inorm people on the nature o

the inormation and services

oered, women operators

treated villagers, includingyoung men and panchayat5

leaders, as their relatives

and spoke to them inormally.

Womens greater involvement in

development activities compared

to men, according to Mr. Muthu,

is sucient ground or their

recognition as a key resource

in implementing these kinds o

initiatives and creating a certainstandard or the centre.

Operators noted that, ater

somte time, going door-to-door

to build awareness in order

to secure the communitys

participation in the centres

was no longer necessary, as

community members would

consult them in securing

additional inormation, content

or services, and invite them to

events and unctions to provide

their inputs. The communitys

role lies not just in participating,

using and beneting rom

services, but also in playing a

strong role in monitoring the

centres. Thagavalagam Village

Associations, comprising

members rom dierent user

groups (armers, SHG members,

etc.) meet on a monthly basis

to review the activities o the

operator, discuss and plan or the

upcoming month, and take action

or make decisions as necessary.

DHANs ability to establish the

centres as spaces dedicatedto community development

is urther exemplied in its

perception o sustainability.

Dismissing the priority given

to income generation in other

projects, Mr. Muthu debunks the

myth o demand-driven change,

and comments: We should not

orce the community. We need

to get them to realise the value

o the services oered and build

on the network beore they

are ready to pay charges or

services. He urther argues that

nancial sustainability has to be

considered once centres have

matured, that is, when peoples

needs are met, and operators can

equip themselves to play their

role, while DHAN could keep up

its commitment o developing

technology models. Thus, DHAN

perceives that in the longer term,

the nancial ownership o the

centres would shit to the village

monitoring committees.

What do DHANs VICstell us about gender inICTD projects?

Emphasis on service versus

services

A clear emphasis in the DHAN

project is that Thagavalagams

are not centres designed to

conduct training or provide

revenue-based services, but

are vehicles to carry orward

DHANs larger goals o serving

the community and bringing

orth development in line with

the communitys needs. The

entire ethos o the project is

refective o the motive to serve.

In this context, ICTs are seen as

a tool that can acilitate change

in a way that was previously not

possible. ICTs thereore need

to be engaged with, as they are

the tools o the mainstream.

However, technology does notsupersede community-end

processes, which orm the

bulk o DHANs operations at

the village level (inormation

provision, development o

ofine content, holding

events, meetings and unctions,

networking with government

ocials). This mix o technical

and social activities has ensuredthat the Thagavalagams are not

isolated technical centres but

are spaces that the community

can reach out in order to deal

with their constraints and needs.

Womens needs within a set

up that is open to all

The organisations perception o

its image within the communityreveals an interesting paradox.

On one hand, there is a repeated

emphasis on the critical role

that women, particularly

the Kalanjiam groups, play

in community development

processes and their initiative


Testimonies showed how the choice o women

as operators seemed to be not only based on thepotential or their empowerment but also on theneed or the project to succeed.

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in engaging in any process o

progressive social change. Yet, on

the other, the organisation seems

particularly cautious about

cultivating a picture o a woman-

only space or a Kalanjiam-

oriented project. Creating a

space that is open to all has

led to only little development

o women-specic content or

services. Womens ownership o

the space was seen as sucient

to ensure womens eective use

o the space or their needs.

Individual empowerment

versus collectiveempowerment

One element that emerges very

strongly is the extent to which

the project has brought about

changes in the lives o individual

women. The refections o the

operators themselves and Mr.

Muthus analysis reveal that

their role in the management

o the telecentres has createdsignicant changes in their

personal and amily lives and

in their perceptions within the

larger community. However, the

ICT project has not provided

collective empowerment as

evidenced by the absence o

specic instances where women

conronted power relations

or unair gender practices in

society. Even though ICTs were

very clearly seen as critical

knowledge and learning tools,

this view was not complemented

by an articulation o how

womens collectives could use

them or their own agenda.

Gender in the development

process: means or ends?

Another issue that emerged was

whether the empowerment o

individual girls was a positive

oshoot o the programme or

a deliberate attempt within

the larger theory o change.Testimonies showed how the

choice o women as operators

seemed to be not only based

on the potential or their

empowerment but also on the

need or the project to succeed.

Women were considered as a

critical instrument in the success

and sustainability o the project,

whilst also gaining criticalknowledge and experiences or

themselves.

Sustainability defned as

community appropriation and

not fnancial viability

DHAN has 162 centres running

in Tamil Nadu with a majority o

its sta consisting o girls who

have been selected to participate

rom the very beginning.

The project has given much

attention to building ownership

amongst various stakeholders.

Content and applications are

not considered as ends in and

o themselves but as possible

solutions that need to be tested

and adapted based on peoples

usage and appropriation o

the applications. There are

systematic eorts to maintain

peoples interest in the

services oered at the centre,

through canvassing eorts

on a daily basis or unctionsand events on an annual

basis. All o these measures,

whilst strengthening the

long-term inancial viability

o the centres, have, more

importantly, ensured that

the centres became critical

spaces in the community that

are owned and accessed by

all sections o the population,including women.

Reerence

Gurumurthy A., Swamy M., Nuggehalli R.,Vaidyanathan V. (2008), Locating genderin ICTD projects: fve cases rom India ,Bangalore: IT or Change. The study canbe ound at www.ITorChange.net/images/locating.pd.

Four lms have been made about thesecase studies. Write to [email protected] or a copy o the CD.


IT or Change is an India-based NGO working on

inormation society theory and practice rom thestandpoint o equity and social justice. Our work spans

a range o development arenas: gender, education,

community media and governance.

Endnotes1 Gurumurthy A., Swamy M., Nuggehalli R., Vaidyanathan V. (2008),

Locating gender in ICTD projects: fve cases rom India , Bangalore: IT

or Change. Available at www.ITorChange.net/images/locating.pd.

The study was part o the ICT or Development project implemented

by the National Institute or Smart Government (NISG), supported by

UNDP and the Department o Inormation Technology, Government o

India.

2 The ICTD ramework used in this research to typiy dierent approaches

includes the ollowing:

i. ICTs as a vehicle or market extension.

ii. ICTs as eciency enhancing tools or development institutions,including o the government.

iii. ICTs as community-centred development tools that can be used to

specically address education, health, livelihoods, agriculture, andother goals.

iv. ICTs as a new strategy or empowerment that can shit socialpower relationships and acilitate institutional transormation

towards the realisation o rights o marginalised groups.

DHAN Foundations VICs were selected to represent type 3.3 More inormation about DHAN Foundation on www.dhan.org.

4 The district is the node o local governance at the state level in the Indian

administrative system.

5 Panchayats (or gram panchayats) are village level sel-governance

institutions in the Indian administrative system.

Credits

Coordination : Chlo Zollman

Design : Varun Dhanda, Krupa Thimmaiah

Editor : Anita Gurumurthy, Chlo Zollman

Editorial support : Sophie Ault

Printed by : National Printing Press, Bengaluru

A digital version o this paper is available at www.ITorChange.net

Creative Common License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0

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