The Hindu : Karnataka News : Empowering rural women through computers

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Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Empowering rural women through computers

H.S. Narasimha Kumar

250 women from 200 villages of 11 districts in the State are undergoing training now

TO MAKE A LIVING: Women at a training session in Davangere.

DAVANGERE: “I did not know that computers have so many diverse uses; I can do many things using computers sitting in my village,” says Chandrakala of Ukkadagathri village in Jagalur taluk. Similarly, Karibasamma of Holesirigere says that she was not exposed to computers all these years and she was under the impression till recently that learning computers was just like going to the moon. “Now I can play with computers and I have realised that I can get all the information that I need just by clicking a button,” she adds.

Chandrakala and Karibasamma are among the 250 women drawn from over 200 villages in 11 districts of the State who are undergoing a computer training programme here organised by a non-governmental organisation, Yeshaswini Nagara Hagu Grameena Abhivruddi Parishat.

The NGO, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC), is giving training to the 250 women who are members of different self-help groups. Training is being given under the banner of e-Mahile.

This is a pilot project being implemented under the Asare scheme by the KSWDC for women in Belgaum, Dharwad, Madikeri, Shimoga, Hassan, Mysore, Ramnagaram, Davangere, Haveri, Bellary and Chitradurga districts.

e-Mahile is conceptualised to provide all possible services to the rural public through rural women. Women, particularly members of women self-help groups, who have a minimum qualification of SSLC, are given comprehensive computers education. They are taught how to access the Internet for collecting information and use it for various works.

Then, each trained woman who is called village service provider, will be given a laptop, printer, UPS, soil testing kit, LCD projector, digital camera, e-mahile dual language software and educational CDs, Internet connection, IRTC currency for booking rail and air tickets at a cost of Rs. 1,80,000. Nationalised banks will support these women by providing loans.

Apart from loans, the government will give Rs. 10,000 as subsidy to each woman under the Asare programme. This is besides the Rs. 25,000 margin money.

The KSWDC wants to empower rural women by helping them serve their villages and thereby earn a decent income.

According to an estimate, a trained woman can earn not less than Rs. 10,000 by providing different services in her village.

e-Mahile is based on PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) visualised by the former President Abdul Kalam. The e-mahile software can disseminate information in Kannada and English.

Narendra Jain and M.D. Shivakumar of the NGO that is imparting training said that women would be given basic hardware training, basic e-mahile software training, entrepreneurship training, business module development training and practical field training.

Apart from women, one of their brothers or their husbands will also be given training to assist and help the women in odd hours and during exigency in their villages. They said that they will help the women to get computers and various other accessories after the training camp and they will coordinate between the women development corporation, banks and the trainees in getting loans to install computers in their villages.

The NGO will keep in touch with the trained women till they get completely familiarised with the computers and are able to set right small problems that may crop up in computers and in establishing Net connection.

Girija from Bellary and Jyothi from Shimoga say they are confident that they too could make a living on their own. Girija says she is grateful to the government for giving them training. Jyothi of Hassan and Rehana Sultan of Madikeri noted that they did not know that information technology could be so useful to people. Sunitha Patil of Dharwad and Anuradha of Ramnagaram say that they will now operate their bank accounts through computers and will help other members of their self-help group in operating their bank accounts through computers.

The training camp, which started on March 8 at a choultry here, will continue for another 20 days. Apart from computers training, women are taught basic English grammar by a professor of a college here.

Personality development courses and Yoga classes are the added benefits. Many women with their newborns are attending the training camp and the organisers have set up a crèche and appointed women to take care of the children.

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