Empowering Women through ICTs: Cyber Campaigns on Violence Against Women in India
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120140325 |
| Author | Swati Mirani,Charru Malhotra,Parveen Pannu |
| Published date | 01 July 2014 |
| Date | 01 July 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH ICTs: CYDER
CAMPAIGNS ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN
INDIA
SWATI MIRANI, PARVEEN PANNU AND
CHARRU MALHOTRA
Information
Communication
Technologies ( JCTs)
have
emerged out as a powerful tool
for
social engagement.
It
play
a vital role in shaping social movements, raising awareness,
and
ultimately giving citizens a voice-setting ground
for
activism
and
citizen journalism. Several issues are being
discussed
worldwide
through
many
types
of
mobile
applications; biogs, social networking websites, accessed using
mobile phones worldwide. The issues taken up are cause-
related fundraising, lobbying, volunteering, and community
building, with an aim to generate
peoples
movements
and
collective actions disseminating relevant messages across the
masses. A worldwide prevalent issue, violence faced by women
in various forms, especially
in
Asian countries, has a profound
effect on a woman's life, affecting their participation in
different walks
of
life including workforce, society and political
participation; retarding their status in their native society. The
article highlights the interaction
of
youth in Delhi and National
Capital Region (NCR) with
ICTs,
especially internet and its
applications
in
e-campaigning on Violence Against Women
(VA
W)
assessed through an online questionnaire. The study
findings infer that ICTs are effective agents in galvanising
different forms
of
online
and
ojfline actions concentrating on
eliminating VAW worldwide.
INTRODUCTION
Information Communication Technologies and Activism .
INFORMATION COMMUNICATION Technologies (ICTs)
play
a
prominent role in the creation and exchange
of
infonnation, evidently
influencing various facets
of
public and private life, including culture,
680 I INDIAN JOURNAL
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JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014
media, entertainment, politics and activism. With the changing trends in
application
of
ICTs virtually everywhere, activists too have started using
these . technologies for lobbying about social issues, across the globe.
Interestingly, it is hard to find
an
advocacy group that does not have an
online presence today. Internet is fundamentally changing the way activists
work, enhancing their abilities to compete with the policy-makers;
facilitating small and poorly funded groups
to
organise, publicise and
communicate with larger audiences faster and at lower cost (Price, 2000).
Cyberactivism, an application
of
internet and ICTs, applies advanced ICTs,
(e-mail, newsgroups, and the internet) used by individuals and groups to
communicate with large audiences, galvanising individuals around a
specific issue or set
of
issues
in
an
attempt to build solidarity towards a
meaningful collective actions (McCaughey &
Ayer,
2003). Cyber-activism
is close
to
'cyber campaigning' that takes place when information and
opinions, which support the advocacy strategy are discussed and presented
in networked cyber-groups through electronic communication technologies.
Cyber-campaigning is now increasingly being used worldwide for cause-
related fundraising, lobbying, volunteering, and community building, with
an
aim to generate mass movements and collective action. Several popular
online petition sites such as Awaaz.org, Change.org, MoveOn.org; Blogs
on
MySpace, Word press and podcasts engage people to share their ideas,
thoughts, views and discuss issues
of
public interest on gender, environment,
human
rights, animal rights, etc.
These
serve
to
facilitate
faster
communications through citizen movements and disseminate a message
across to mass audiences. Several social organisations using cyber-
campaigning
via
social networking websites, have garnered huge support
from people at large leading to united public action on several critical
issues including socio-cultural status
of
women in developing countries
including India. The dynamic nature
of
activism through
ICTs
bring in
some positive aspects like faster communication, wider reach and more,
yet some limitations associated with the phenomenon are crucial to the
functioning
of
any campaign running online at every stage
of
its working.
Socio-cultural Status
of
Women
in
India
The pillar
of
human life, man and woman share equal responsibility in
the structuring the society and are meant to stay at par with each other.
Though, not only an Indian phenomenon, women have been treated
indifferently all across the globe (United Nations 2008; Shah 2010; UN
Women 2012; Amnesty International 2013). The situation
is
almost the
same everywhere-irrespective
of
the religion, class, caste, creed and
geographical locale. Women constitute one-half
of
the world's total
population at 48.4 per cent
of
the world's population (World Bank 2011).
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