The great digital divide
Dawn
Monday, 21 Sep, 2009
By Karin Astrid Siegmann

OVER the past years, the availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has risen rapidly in Pakistan. The number of computers increased ten-fold between 2003 and 2007.

Teledensity, i.e. telephone lines per 100 inhabitants, be it fixed PTCL, wireless loop lines or mobile phones, is up from 12 to 61 per cent between 2005 and 2009.

In 2007, more than half of the households owned a TV set. Internationally as well as in the case of Pakistan, ICTs have been powerful driving forces for development. Besides their multiple applications for the business community and the role of the telecommunication industry alone in providing more than 212,000 jobs in 2006-07, they have supported other services that are crucial for human development, such as health care, education, natural resource management and democratisation.

Despite the exponential increase in the availability of ICTs, drastic differences in levels and quality of ICT access remain between different population groups. Rural areas remain underserved, creating a rural-urban ‘digital divide’. Furthermore, besides the physical presence of equipment like phones, computers, TVs or radios in a household, using ICTs demands affordability, accessibility and literacy - and these factors are highly gender-sensitive. The low female labour market participation implies that a majority of women do not have direct access to cash income necessary to pay for ICT equipment and services. Illiteracy of more than half of the female population is likely to prevent them from using computer equipment and even mobile phones whose dialing requires a basic knowledge of numbers.

Resultantly, unequal access to and use of ICTs by women and men is likely. ICT indicators as well as other official statistics, however, do not provide gender-disaggregated information to assess this gender digital divide. In this situation, the government’s objective to harness the potential of ICTs for development and the private sector’s efforts to reach out to the female half of the population are unlikely to succeed.

The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) has measured the ‘gender digital divide’ in rural areas of the country, where the gap is likely to be most pronounced. It was conducted in four of the most disadvantaged districts of the country in terms of their levels of human development, namely Batagram, Bolan, Muzzafargarh and Tharparkar.

In these districts, mobile phones are commonly available. Almost half of the surveyed households own at least one mobile phone set, reflecting the phenomenal growth of mobile connections in the country during the past decade. Radios and TV sets are the second most widespread technologies, available in a quarter of and 13 per cent of the surveyed rural households, respectively. The study also indicates that the availability of mobile phones alone is insufficient to enable rural women to telecommunicate.

The sets at hand are largely owned by their husbands, fathers and brothers, whose permission to make calls is required by more than 40 per cent of all female respondents. This indicates that rather than network coverage and the presence of mobile phones alone, socio-cultural factors determine the reach of female users in rural areas.

The hurdles women and girls’ face include negative perceptions of their technological skills. A large majority of respondents agreed with the statement that ‘Men have a natural advantage in the use of technologies’. Sadly, female respondents have an even more negative perception of their own technological abilities compared to male interviewees. Apart from the low regard of women’s skill to use technologies, some ICTs themselves have a bad image.

While several interviewees see some TV channels as promoting vulgarity, mobile phones are regarded as dangerous in a girl’ hand. Mothers fear that their daughters will use mobiles to date boys and will disgrace their families. The role of boys in such socially unacceptable use of telecommunication technology is largely ignored – at least no comparable constraints are keeping them from making mobile phone calls.

Cultural norms may also represent an obstacle in the government’s efforts to provide affordable access to ICTs to the rural population through telecommunication centres. Apart from the (e-)literacy issues involved in making telecommunication, computers and internet useful for women and girls in rural areas, they usually cannot move freely outside home. In the present survey, only six per cent of female respondents reported to be able to travel outside their village without escort, even in urgent situations, such as if they needed to access health care. Resultantly, far less women have access to ICTs outside home. Only 28 compared to 43 per cent of men.

‘Old’ ICTs like radio, in contrast, combine the advantages of availability in many households and easy access for female users: Mostly, women do not require permission for listening to the radio or watching TV. By and large, the operation of sets is simple and programmes in local languages are available and appreciated.

Television has the additional advantage of overcoming language barriers through visualization. Besides, women and men use such broadcasting equipment chiefly for the purposes of entertainment and information, the access provides a good platform for contents related to human development and women’s empowerment.

Therefore, public and private organisations promoting women’s empowerment should not neglect ‘old’ ICTs such as radio and TV in their efforts to harness the potential of ICTs for greater gender equality. Research across Asia and practitioners’ experience from Pakistan and abroad show how, for instance, radio programmes can give a voice to women’s concerns and can present women as producers of media content in a male-dominated society.

If public media bodies, such as the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation or PTV, or private electronic media join hands with non-governmental organisations, media tools with a powerful reach to women in rural areas can be developed. Existing localised programmes should be extended to cover more languages and contents of special interest to women. The ministry of information, National ICT R&D Fund might be a suitable source for funding such initiatives.

A lot of attention of public bodies and private actors remain focus on the provision of computers and internet access to rural areas. Yet these ‘new’ ICTs, so far, hardly have any relevance for female users. This is largely due to the multiple hurdles they face in accessing them as outlined earlier.

If this situation is to be redressed and the promotion of wide-spread use of ICTs is a policy objective as expressed in the current National IT Policy and the Millenium Development Goals, the socio-cultural norms as crucial factors determining women and girls’ access have to be taken into account. This means, for example, that projects initiated with support of the Universal Services Fund (USF) established by the government to support the development of telecommunication services in unserved and under-served areas throughout the country, need to consider the social perception of spaces utilised for telecentres.

The experience of Dareecha, a project of the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore, for ICT literacy for rural school students shows that, for instance, girls’ schools are considered decent and safe places for girls learning and practicing on computer equipment. The present study indicates that PCOs are perceived as no-go-areas for many rural women.

Besides, initiatives need to be taken at the policy level. The implicit assumption of the current IT policy is that the provision of related infrastructure and technical training are the main steps necessary to harness ICTs’ potential for human development. The research findings outlined here indicate that this is not sufficient, especially if the goal is to reach out to the female population in rural areas.

The establishment of a gender working group in IT ministry can ensure that these concerns are being taken into account. Progress in bridging the gender digital divide should be monitored with the support of gender-disaggregated IT indicators to be compiled by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, focusing on access and use, rather than technical infrastructure alone.