ABSTRACT
Empowerment of disadvantaged persons . particularly women . is an important item on the global agenda. Another item is the problem of digital divide. An interesting possibility is to explore if ICT can play the role of a catalyst for empowering needy women. The InfoDev/World Bank sponsored pilot Project SITA (Studies in Information Technology Applications: A computer-skill training program for socially disabled women) has developed a multimedia-based strategy for training individuals with inadequate educational background and limited communication skills. The project implemented this strategy with great success in training over 500 needy women during 200-2001. Full details about SITA are available on http://www.mmcaetu.org/sitaa/sitaa.html). An Assessment of the Project was carried out for InfoDev by Professor Alfonso Molina (A.Molina@ed.ac.uk) from the University of Edinburgh. A study of SITA was undertaken during October .December 2000 by two Swedish students, Ms. Ulrika Emtervall and Ms. Malin Lingefelt, through the Minor Field Study . scholarship offered by Sida.
Amongst the many recognitions received by SITA, mention should be made of the Global Junior Challenge Award (www.gjc.it) in December 2000 in Rome. The project was a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge Award 2000 competition held in June 2000 and in the ICT Story competition organized by the IICD, Netherlands, in October 2000.
The quest for sustainability began at the conclusion of InfoDev support in 2001. The Core Group of women trained under SITA has established an e-cooperative MitraMandal, which is operating through a Community Centre located in a low-income neighbourhood of East Delhi. The Centre is spreading ICT awareness in the neighbourhood and hoping for self-reliance through contracting job work from the public/private sector agencies. It is also formulating partnership programs in capacity building with several NGOs. The e-cooperative . perhaps the first hitech coop in the world . is planning to conduct the MitraMandal Challenge Award (MMCA)competition in 2004 to catalyze the use of ICT in schools in India with particular reference to the disadvantaged schools. The Rome-based GJC has offered to co-sponsor MMCA and similar response is awaited from the Stockholm Challenge.
ICT training and Internet access is restricted -- in a country like India -- to the upper-income group who can afford the cost of these facilities. This fact will widen further the digital divide if allowed to go unchecked. The key feature of SITA/MitraMandal Project is to provide ICT training, Internet access and income generation in an interlinked manner so that disadvantaged individuals, particularly women, are encouraged to enter ICT-enabled service sector.
Since the main motivation of our Project is social, and not commercial, the entire infrastructure like space, furniture, hardware, software, power and telephone facility (with backup through UPS) has been donated to the Community Centre. To summarize, the emphasis so far is on the socio-economic side. Technological options like wireless connectivity and solar power, needed for rural areas, will become effective only when adequate number of ICT trainers along with tested training methodology is established to suit the needs of individuals with inadequate educational background and limited communication skills.