In a farming region, poor village women step into video e-mail booths to send messages to their husbands working in faraway cities. Although India's information technology sector counts among the world's most developed, the wealth generated in the new economy remains largely exclusive to the country's educated elites in big cities, such as New Delhi and Bangalore, India's information technology hub. Slowly, however, technology is reaching the rural masses and helping women take charge of their lives and, in some cases, giving them a livelihood. Rural women traditionally have little say in their own lives and their families in this poor country of 1 billion people. Centuries-old caste and religious traditions limit women to caring for their families, their husbands' families, and working in the fields.
Most rural women have little contact with the world beyond their villages.
It's very slow, but we are getting there. Traditional women are stepping out of their homes and doing new things which they never thought they would do,'' said Rajesh Verma, joint director of the information technology department of the northeaster Himalayan state of Sikkim. State authorities there have set up 40 community information centers in remote areas equipped with six computers each and a direct satellite link and are teaching women to use computers. Eventually, the villagers may be able to use computers to get government data, lodge complaints or vote. Some of these centers are located 10,000 feet above sea level, where clients include nomadic herdsmen.