Put technology in a woman’s hands

Science, engineering and, to a large extent, technology, have always been considered a man’s domain. But the mobile phone of today, loaded with all kinds of magic features that are becoming simpler to understand and operate, has the tremendous potential to change all that.

Participating in a panel discussion on ‘Connected Women’ organised by the Vodafone Foundation last week in Delhi, the figures only reaffirmed what one always suspected — that a whopping 300 million less women, compared to men, use the mobile phone. And no prizes for guessing that the bulk of the gap is in the developing countries.

We all know how that wonderful grassroots organisation Sewa (Self Employed Women’s Association) with a membership of 1.9 million women, through its ICT cell, given the power of technology to tens of thousands of poor rural women in the remotest villages of Gujarat. Bar-coding systems, voice-based emails in local languages and so on have not only made these women’s lives easier, they have increased both productivity and profitability by saving precious time. Technology has reached them before literacy!

While individual stories of economically empowered women never cease to impress, industry research unravels startling data on the difference that can be made to the global economy by technology in general and by reaching it to women in particular. A recent World Bank study estimates that every 10 per cent increase in access to broadband can grow the GDP of developing countries by 1.38 per cent. Other industry research estimates that bringing 600 million additional women and girls online could boost global GDP by up to $13-18 billion!

Over the last few years, as Islamic countries, many of them with oil and other wealth, have been facing turmoil and violence, it is heartening to recall what Mike Feerick, founder of ALISON, one of the largest MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) had told me recently. Of the two million people who consume his free online courses, 65 per cent are women. Many of them are mothers who do this online “self-paced learning” after completing household chores or while their kids are asleep or in school.

In several West Asian countries, women’s education is neglected because they don’t, or can’t, go to college. They think: Well, I might not be able to go to a university but I can go online and learn an awful lot. And this is not only about social justice. Imagine, when some day things change and there is greater gender justice and more freedom for women’s physical movement in these countries. Tens of thousands of these women from Asia, Africa, and other countries , will be ready, armed with valuable knowledge and skills, to join the workforce and grow their countries’ GDP.

More than that, what this will do to their self-esteem — you can’t put a mere figure to it.

Coming to India, things are not that hunky-dory when it comes to gender justice and women’s participation in the organised workforce. A recent CII estimate says that India’s GDP can rise by 8 per cent if the male-female workers ratio goes up by 10 per cent. Another CII report titled ‘Understanding the levels of women’s employment in the workplace’ found only 6 per cent women comprised the workforce in smaller companies, 4 per cent in larger and 18 per cent in medium-scale industries. A 2013 World Economic Forum report gives India a dismal rank of 101 among 136 countries on gender party and the lowest in Brics.

A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report of 2014 ranked China’s “female economy” much higher than India’s and predicted “in the next few years young professional (Chinese) women will break into middle and top management jobs and fuel the next wave of growth in the luxury business.

Female earnings in China will grow from $1.3 trillion in 2010 to $4 trillion by 2020, up from $680 billion in 2005 and $350 billion in 2000”. That’s a ten-fold increase in 20 years.

In contrast, it found India’s female economy “fragile”, with “significant gender discrimination, limited access to education, low formal labour-participation rates, and low wages”. It found, over the years, women’s wages in India had actually come down and had “declined to 26 per cent of men’s wages, on average”, and noted the Indian Government was unwilling to step in and “end discrimination, harassment, and physical threats”. As far as physical safety is concerned, we have seen evidence of this in the shocking incidents of sexual assault and rape reported from all over the country.

And yet, women have the potential to give so much to the Indian economy. The BCG report noted that the overall size of the Indian female economy was expanding fast, and in 2010, “some 134 million working women earned $280 billion.

By 2020, there will be 158 million working women and their earnings will have more than tripled — to some $900 billion”. While this is comforting, it is a far cry from China; our women’s total earnings by 2020 will be less than a fourth of the money made by Chinese women!

In this context, another effort spearheaded by Sewa, the Rudiben scheme, in partnership with the Vodafone and Cherie Blaire foundations, gains significance. Under the RUDI (Rural Distribution Network) brand, about 3000 women retailers reach farm products to 1.1 million households in Gujarat .

While previously, the RUDIbens had to travel long distances to place orders and collect stocks from central warehouses, now they place orders by sms on a basic mobile phone. About 1,300 women have already tripled their incomes by using this mobile solution for small retailers, through greater efficiency, saving time and money on travel, and satisfied customers; more women are being added this year.

Forget the consumption of luxury, we need millions of Indian women to be given a helping hand through simple technology-assisted initiatives like these — tens of thousands are required across India — to lift millions out of poverty. Women, across classes and sectors, have proved that once they are given an opportunity, they are focused, innovative and extremely hard-working. And on their monetary success rides a brighter future for their families, particularly the children.

So let’s stop squabbling about the ₹30 or ₹40-a-day definition of poverty and speed up innovative ways to involve millions of Indian women in different forms of economic activity.

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