IMPACT OF ICT FOR WOMEN LITERACY IN INDIAN RURAL AREAS OF E- GOVERNANCE

RAJEEV KUMAR¹*, SHARMA M.K.²*
¹Department of Computer Application, College of Management & Computer Application, Teerthankar Mahaveer University, Moradabad, India
²Department of Computer Science, Amrapali Institute -Haldwani, Uttarakhand, India
* Corresponding Author : sharmamkhld@gmail.com

Received : 12-12-2011     Accepted : 15-01-2012     Published : 28-02-2012
Volume : 3     Issue : 1       Pages : 194 - 195
J Inform Oper Manag 3.1 (2012):194-195

The particular focus of this paper is information and communication technologies for rural development like women’s literacy. ICT built the world’s most affordable, durable education for all people. ICT designed specifically for people who cannot read and who live without electricity like radio and television. Information and Communication and Technology provide the voice knowledge, SMS facility etc. Rural e-Governance applications is the important role the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play in the realm of rural women’s development like literacy, knowledge, job, etc. In this paper we design a framework of e learning system for education in rural areas of e governance.

Rural system, e learning system, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), e-Governance Application.

The means of e- government is electronic Government using an ICT (information Communication and Technology) by government agencies in order to create the relation citizen, business and other government sectors. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with businesses and industries, citizen empowerment through access of information, or more efficient government management. Such that we have revenue growth, reducing corruption, increasing transparency and profit, greater convenience as result of using [1] .
World Education has a long history of successfully working with local partners to design, execute, manage and evaluate participatory, community-based initiatives to advance the conditions of girls and women. World Education's programs help girls enroll and stay in school and help women gain access to or create new educational, financial, and social resources in their communities. World Education programs help girls and women improve their own lives, the lives of their families and the conditions in the communities. For parents - and especially mothers - this means creating conditions that ensure their daughters have equal access to basic education, are able to make informed decisions about their futures, and are able to protect themselves from trafficking, sexual exploitation, HIV and AIDS, for example [2] .
E-government is a powerful tool for human development and essential to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium Development Goals. “Government’s use of technology, particularly web-based Internet applications, to enhance the access to and delivery of government information and service to citizens, business partners, employees, other agencies, and government [1] Many countries are experiencing its transformative power in revitalizing public administration, overhauling public management, fostering inclusive leadership and moving civil service towards higher efficiency, transparency and accountability. They recognize e-government as a way of realizing the vision of a global information society. In contrast, countries slow to embrace e-government tend to remain mired in the typical institutional pathologies of supply-driven services and procedures, remoteness between government and citizen, and opaque decision-making processes.
e-Government has  been defined as ‘the use of ICT to promote more efficient and effective government, facilitate more accessible government services, allow greater public access to information, and make government more accountable to citizens.

The importance of e-government is closely inter-related with importance of good government in country. Governments across developing nations worldwide have more challenges and responsibilities to bring their nations at par with the developed nations. To face such challenges, government can bring in e-Governance reforms. E-Governance offers a new way forward, helping improve government processes, connect citizens, and build interactions with and within civil society. we can see that good government as in exercise of administrative, political and economic authority to manage affair and transaction of country in each and every level. The main importance of e-government is to support and simplify e-governance for all parties, government, citizen and business.

ICT does not mean the Internet alone; it also includes radio, wireless phone, computer connected (or not) to the Internet, electronic brail writer, and a wide variety of software, hardware or tools such as operating systems, databases, emails or office productivity applications, networks, etc.. They are not to be used instead of other tools, but complement what exists to achieve a goal, be it better food distribution or health care access, or eLearning, entertainment, etc. In today’s world, the most prevalent ICT device is the mobile phone, with almost 3.5 Billion users around the world. ^[3]

It is very useful for women are who has not literate and it is access the information of all types like computer, Agriculture, cooking etc... Government launched the many of projects for literacy in rural areas with the help of Information and Communication Technology. It is very useful for rural women’s. With the help of ICT government take the many people educated in rural areas. It is very effective for all people in India.

Much of the content on the Internet has not been developed to address the needs of women and girls in developing and developed countries nor is it available in the languages they speak. Digital technology has also been used for Harassment and sexual exploitation of women and girls in the form of pornography, trafficking and predatory e-mails. While gender sensitive men have done much to promote gender-equitable content design, fully addressing these issues can only be done when more women become software engineers, content producers and entrepreneurs filling the large need for these resources. There is a growing commercial market, yet significantly underserved in the developing world.
Educated women increase opportunities for their families and children. ICTs are an important tool for education delivery (e-learning), as well as a series of products about which one needs education.
There are three aspects to the e-Governance –
a. IT enabling the government functions - something similar to back-office automation
b. Web-enabling the government functions so that the citizens will have a direct access.
c. Improving Government processes so that openness, accountability, accuracy, speed of operations, effectiveness and efficiency may be achieved [5] . [Fig-1] .

According to last census held in 2001, the percentage of female literacy in the country is 54.16%. The literacy rate in the country has increased from 18.33% in 1951 to 65.38% as per 2001 census. The female literacy rate has also increased from 8.86% in 1951 to 54.16%. It is noticed that the female literacy rate during the period 1991-2001 increased by 14.87% whereas male literacy rate rose by 11.72%. Hence the female literacy rate actually increased by 3.15% more compared to male literacy rate. [4] .

The main strategies adopted by the Government for increasing female literacy in the country include: [4]
a. National Literacy Mission for imparting functional literacy
b. Universalisation for Elementary Education
c. Non-Formal Education

Women literacy is the important part of growth and development in India. Government has taken many projects for women’s literacy. If government take more projects for women’s education in India. The education of women’s is particularly valuable as a strategic investment in human resource. The education of women and girls has an impact not only on their own development but also on that of their families and countries.

[1] www.technetnepal.net.  
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[2] www.worlded.org.  
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[3] ICT FOR WOMEN’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT (2009) “WORLD BANK GROUP WORKING PAPER SERIES”.  
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[4] www.nlm.nic.in.  
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[5] www.unescap.org.  
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Fig-1