ICT4D PROJECTS IN SOUTHERN INDIA: AN IMPACT ANALYSIS

This book is an outcome of a longitudinal study on ICT initiatives and their impact in the rural areas of Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu India. The author’s research on ICT initiatives in the villages of Pondicherry during 2007 -2010 and on ‘Digital penetration among rural women and its sustainability as a follow-up study over a three-year period between 2016 and 2019 was funded by the University Grants Commission a statutory body set up for maintenance of the standards of higher education by the Indian government. There have been numerous ICT initiatives all over India whose economic and social benefits claimed to have been reaped by the beneficiaries are generally exaggerated. In reality these projects have only heightened the dependency levels of women despite the fact that in these initiatives women had greater access to the ICTs than men. It has been widely observed that the benefits of these initiatives and the so-called ‘development’ associated with them are short-lived and seem to vanish as soon as the funds of the initiative/project are exhausted. This book chooses to bring to light the various factors that have weighed against Digital sustainability among rural women.