Women & Information Technology

 

In 1986, Rajiv Gandhi's Government introduced the Muslim Women's Bill. Rajiv Gandhi's Government deliberately supported this bill in an effort to pacify Muslims. Women in India face a number of problems at political, economic, social, religious and educational level; such problems are not only in India but in other world countries too. Female infanticide, child marriage, compulsory marriage, dowry and dowry deaths, sex harassment, raping bonded labour poverty illiteracy, ill-treatment, wage disparities in agricultural and industrial sectors, police atrocities, slavery orphans, neglected women, subordination at home and outside torture and the like are some of the burning problems of women in contemporary India which are given top priority by the governments (Central as well as States) and women's organizations. Indian women in the beginning of the 21st century would argue that they still have a long way to go to attain gender justice. A general awakening has begun and it cannot be permanently suppressed. There is imbalance in sex ration itself. The census report of 1991 showed that there were only 927 women for every 1000 men. The estimate of the world bank (1991) showed that out of 12 million girls annually born in India 25% do not live to see their 15th birthday. Deaths of young girls in India exceed those of young boys every year.

Women (India) incontemporary times perform diverse roles. A married working woman has to fulfill the roles of a daughter, wife, mother, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law and sister within the family, and an employee, as a subordinate, colleague, supervisor and friend outside the family, at work, with the increase in the number of roles played and with additional responsibility at work, in case of married working women, there are numerous changes for conflicts in role performance which in turn lead to dissatisfaction in role fulfillment. Today women have entered in diverse fields, attained success, and gained popularity. Women have gone in for jobs as teachers, nurses, office assistants, doctors, engineers, lawyers, social workers and also armed forces and the police forces. These jobs were once considered as purely for male members. Women have carved out for themselves a niche in the contemporary, modern society and the world has seen numerous women leaders too. Indian women have emerged as giants in the IT in India. The teamwork is achieved among Indian women because of their good communication abilities with each other, so they are compatible for a problem of designing a complicated product where the teamwork is essentially required. They don't gossip much in office. They complete their task in time and leave Women play an important role in multimedia because of their creativeness and intelligence. One of the units of IBM has stated in its annual report that in recent years women are able to adapt themselves to the new technology more easily than men. The information in its annual report is stated as follows: (1) in business, 16% males, 23% females are involved. (2) In E-mail usage, about 50% females are continuously using it, whereas the males are only about 41%. (3) For Research work only 14% males are referring internet where as the females are about 22%. India has more number of women programmers, system analysts and other professionals than the USA. Statistically, however the ratio of men versus women shows that women still have some catching up to do. While the ration evens out the Indian populace is gradually getting accustomed to female's faces in work places. There are fields where women programmers get first preference as system analysts and programmers. Padma Ravichander, an IT Professional is 45 years old. She is described as Digital Diva, for she is the most powerful woman in Indian InfoTech today. She heads the Rs.9, 000 crore American multinational company Perot Systems operations in India and the Asia Pacific, with her 6000 strong staff providing almost half of its business.