A Workshop on Empowering Rural Women Through Use of Information & Communication Technology under the title “Women Run ICT Enterprises” was organised by Indian Association for Women in IT (IAWIT), the Dept. of Public Administration, Madurai Kamaraj University and the KINS Foundation, Gandhigram, was held at Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India on Nov 17 & 18, 2006.

The Workshop was sponsored by Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), the University of Manchester, UK and Datamation
Foundation Charitable Trust, New Delhi, and supported by Enterpreneurship Development Board, Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India and CED-IT Incubator Centre, Tamilnadu.

A galaxy of eminent speakers and resource persons representing IT companies (STPI, Chennai, Nasscom, Chennai, Microsoft Research India, Bangalore, Lason Technology Ltd, Chennai, Life Line to Business - LL2B. COM, Chennai, K-Soft Systems, Chennai, Vijayalakshi Computers, Madurai) and Autonomous Entrepreneurial Institutions (the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development,
Madurai), Civil Society Orgaizations (Datamation Foundations), US-based
Universities (South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin) IIT-TeNet
team, IL&TS-CSC team have tutored the participants to venture into entrepreneurial activities.

About 150 women, representing a cross section of entrepreneurs, Self Help Group members, Family Counsellors, Dalit Organizations and budding entrepreneurs, in the age group of 20 to 65 from villages and towns in and
around Madurai and neighbouring rural districts attended the workshop.

Notable among them were Annai Theresa Rural Development Trust, Arivoli Iyakkam, DHAN Foundation, IMAGE Trust, Jan Shikshan Sansthan Trust, Maha Semam Trust, Mercy Trust, Thayagam Trust, VPPS trust, Valam Foundation, Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Women’s Development and Welfare Society, Periyakulam,
Theni, Usilampatti, Gandhigram, Virudhunagar, Thiruvarur District (a radius
of about 150 kilometers from Madurai).

Practical sessions on “Entrepreneurial Skills, Rural Business Process Outsourcing & Rural ITES Services” ; “ICT for Development Business Opportunities” ; “e-Employment Opportunities in digital publishing” ; “Rural
enterprise Management”; and “Business Continuity-Disaster Recovery Systems”
were held. A panel session was also arranged to discuss on “Positioning Women Workers in the Call Centre Industry” and “The Value of IT-enterprise in enabling Self-Help Groups”.

The Vice-Chancellors of the Madurai Kamaraj University and the Gandigram Rural University have cheered up the rural women groups to venture into ICT based enterprises to keep themselves economically self-sufficient and to contribute for the social development. The Director, National Science &
Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, DST, Govt. of India spoke on
the support Government extends to aspiring women entrepreneurs.

As part of the workshop, a training programme on “Entrepreneurial Skills - Personality Development and Communication Skills” was conducted by Kris Dev, a Management and ICT Consultant, Co-Founder, Life Line to Business (LL2B), Chennai and International transparency & Accountability Network, a
not-for-profit, global consortium of Social Activists.

The programme was unique in nature and was highly interactive. All the participants actively participated and contributed to the discussions and could realise the hidden strength within them. The programme helped to
better understand the needs and aspirations of rural women and how they can
use ICT as a tool for empowerment.

Opportunities availabe to rural women, particularly the marginalised and the
dalit, under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the
Mission 2007 project of “Every Village a Knowledge center”, and the Right to
Information Act 2005 (RTIA), to alleviate poverty and help achieve UN
Millenium Development Goals was presented by Kris Dev, to encourage them to
adopt such technology.

Use of ICT Applications, to create Citizens’ Database in every village and
town - citizen Identity, personal details, photograph and finger print for
every citizen - to track their life from birth to death - health, education,
employment, monetary transactions, etc. was demonstrated, using a low cost
Stand Alone Biometric Device which can run on car battery. Pilot exercises
of biometric tracking done by dalits and adivasis in other parts of
India,.was presented.

Ms. Rajammal, a 65 year young retired nurse, a M.A. and Ph.D. in Natural
Medicine, a social activist, was a participant and was promoting use of
natural herbs, free of harmful side effects, for medical treatment of
infertility, anaemia, contagious diseases, etc. She was recognised as a
social entrepreneur and a role model for other women to follow. Ms. Rajammal
was enthusiastic to use ICT to track the health of rural citizens using the
biometric device. She sought the support of IAWIT to adopt ICT technology.

The participants felt, programmes of such nature is sure to encourage rural
women to become entrepreneurs and adopt ICT. They desired, more such
programmes should be conducted to bring awareness among rural women and
citizens.