Abstract
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being increasingly mobilised as allies for development (ICT4D). This chapter interrogates the role technology plays in development in rural regions through a micro-level study. Specifically, it interrogates an ICT4D project established by a prominent Indian NGO that aims to empower rural communities through public access to ICTs. Drawing upon field based research from the state of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Pondicherry, South India, this paper demonstrates that ICTs do offer limited opportunities in the form of generic information and enhanced skills, especially amongst children, young and educated people, to participate in the information revolution. Research also shows that it can provide employment opportunities on occasion, develop the social prestige of individuals and the villages and offer opportunities to specific groups within the village communities such as women, youth and others who are otherwise socially marginalised. That said, the research also illustrates that the due to the uneven distribution of gains of growth in India since neoliberalisation in the 1990s, ICTs have not been conducive to transformative empowerment. Drawing on literature on empowerment, I argue that while ICTs provide opportunities for empowerment, existing structural inequalities and systemic conditions hinder the possibilities for “transformative empowerment” and in some instances reinforce pre-existing inequalities and contributes to uneven development. Empowerment through ICTs can only be enabled if the ICT4D initiative addresses the key drivers of marginalisation in rural communities—structural and systemic conditions.
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Notes
- 1.
Henceforth, I will use the term VKCs and Centres interchangeably to refer to the village knowledge centres (VKCs) and village resource centres (VRCs) initiative of MSSRF. Where significant, I will delineate and identify VRCs and VKCs separately. The initiative is part of Mission 2007, a coalition of government agencies, NGOs, private sector and civil society organisations formed in 2004 with the target of establishing 600,000 VKCs in each of the villages in the country. MSSRF was one of the founding members of Mission 2007. To date MSSRF has set up Centres across five States and the Union Territory of Pondicherry in India.
- 2.
The five districts are Kanchipuram, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Pudukkottai in TN, and in UTP, the district of Pondicherry. Furthermore, the district selection also facilitated comparisons across four distinct geographic regions—delta, rainfed, coastal and peri-urban.
- 3.
Knowledge workers are the volunteers who manage these Centres and are from the village in which the Centre is located.
- 4.
Although Freire never used the term ‘empowerment’ (Thomas 1992, p. 136), the central concern of his work is to advance tools for the oppressed to eradicate class oppression, in other words, empowering the disenfranchised.
- 5.
The villages included are: Kovalam (Kanchipuram district); Akkarapettai, PRpuram, Agalankan, Chinangudi, Pillaiperumalnallur and Poombuhar (Nagapattinam district); Vilangudi, Thirupazhanam and Rajendram (Thanjavur district); Oonangudi and Attani (Pudukottai district) and Thirukanchipet, Veerampattinam and Abhishekapakkam (Pondicherry district).
- 6.
Panchayat is the local governance body that has been revived following the 72nd Amendment making elections mandatory.
- 7.
A government-run crèche.
- 8.
PDS provides essential commodities such as sugar, rice, cooking fuel at subsidised prices.
- 9.
MSSRF has assisted in organising 9,600 people in 800 SHGs in five states across the country (Thurow and Solomon 2004).
- 10.
The higher number of women is reflection of the government-mandated policy of allocating SHG loans to women. It is not uncommon that women remain the beneficiaries on paper.
- 11.
A chemical compound used in the region as a toilet cleaner and disinfectant for Indian style commodes.
- 12.
The NGO elects members of the rural community as National Virtual Academy Fellows in recognition of services provided to the community. On occasions, these Fellows are invited to talk about the benefits of the VKCs to the village.
- 13.
The relationship to toilets is informed through the idea that human waste is a contaminant and therefore should not be indoors.
Abbreviations
- ICT4D:
-
Information and communication technologies for development
- ICTs:
-
Information and communication technologies
- KW:
-
Knowledge worker
- MSSRF:
-
M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation
- NEP:
-
New economic policy
- TN:
-
Tamil Nadu
- UTP:
-
Union Territory of Pondicherry
- VRC:
-
Village resource centre
- VKC:
-
Village knowledge centre
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Chatbar, R. (2016). ICT4D and Empowerment: Uneven Development in Rural South India. In: Venkateswar, S., Bandyopadhyay, S. (eds) Globalisation and the Challenges of Development in Contemporary India. Dynamics of Asian Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0454-4_11
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