The project uses technologies such as SMS‐based networking to enable face‐to‐face meetings and provide a space for dialogue.

Bhavnagar: More than 500 rural women shared their experiences when it comes to using information and communication technology to improve governance and access to women’s rights with each other and a delegation from UN Women that included Executive Director and Under‐Secretary General Phumzile Mlambo‐Ngcuka, on Sunday in Shihore Block of Bhavnagar district, Gujarat.

The exchange was part of a day‐long ‘information fair’ organised as part of the “Making Women’s Voices and Votes Count – An ICT based Intervention” project. Supported by UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality, the project uses information communication technologies to help elected women representatives in local panchayats network with each other and connect with local leaders from marginalised women’s groups. This helps them represent these women’s concerns in local government processes as well as use local media to legitimise women’s perspectives on governance.

The project uses technologies such as SMS‐based networking, community radio and video to enable face‐to‐face meetings and provide a space for dialogue. It has also set up a network of 17 information centres where different technology tools are used to enhance women’s access to their entitlements and their voices in local governance. Through this, the project has connected more than 800 elected women representatives and recruited a group of “infomediaries” who can reach more than 25,000 households.

In implementing this project, the Fund works with three partners – IT for Change from Karnataka, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) and Area Networking and Development Initiatives (ANANDI) from Gujarat, and the local platform of elected women leaders “Mahila Swaraj Manch”.

During the initial presentations, Dr Mlambo‐Ngcuka commented on the immense potential for technology to overcome gender inequality and reflected on the significant gender divide that continues to exist in the use of information communication technologies around the world.

“They say women are illiterate, but how can they be when they run community radio, when they know what a 99.2 frequency is. This is the real power. You are appropriating technology for your own purposes – ‘disruption’ in technological terms – in a good way. You are producing real content and you are miles ahead of many other nations in the world.”

Dr Mlambo‐Ngcuka was joined at the fair by Bhartiben Shiyal, the honourable member of parliament from the Bhavnagar constituency. Being an elected representative herself, she said she is well aware of the challenges that rural women face in discharging their duties in governance. As such she recognised the need for separate space for women in government offices and offered to enable such creation of such spaces.

On visiting the stalls and seeing the use of GPS to map access to amenities using free and open software, she has expressed her desire to work the women of Mahila Swaraj Manch in the village she has adopted.

Mahila Swaraj Manch was created to work on governance in Gujarat, including with KMVS and ANANDI, through training grassroots elected women representatives to generate awareness regarding their roles and responsibilities, as well as to work towards making the Panchayati Raj system more gender responsive.

Savitaben, President of Mahila Swaraj Manch and a Dalit ex‐Sarpanch of Katodia village says elected women representatives are not the only ones who need information.

“All the women in the village are hungry for information, so we regularly send 'talking messages' through interactive voice recording system to women in 45 villages about Panchayat meetings, schemes, and rights.”

Since the pilot project started in January 2013, there has been a visible change in the attitudes of men towards gender equality, as well as a greater awareness around social issues such as gender justice, safe childbirth, environment protection, water, panchayat and alcoholism thanks to subtle messaging on community radio programmes.

After the official presentations, Dr Mlambo‐Ngcuka and the UN Women delegation visited stalls highlighting the different areas of work under the Making Women’s Voices and Votes Count project. Local women leaders shared details of the training modules used within the project, highlighting the benefits of working through the information centres and their abilities in using tools such as computers, tablets and GIS mapping.

The visit was part of Dr Mlambo‐Ngcuka’s first visit to India as UN Women’s Executive Director. She will also be participating in the MenEngage Global Symposium held in Delhi from November 10‐13.