March 08, 2023 09:57 pm | Updated March 09, 2023 08:40 am IST – Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. File
| Photo Credit: A. SHAIKMOHIDEEN
The goal of total digital literacy for women can be achieved through the Women and Child Development department’s Digital Padhasala project, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said. He was inaugurating the International Women’s Day celebrations organised by the Women and Child Development department and presenting the Vanitharatna awards here on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister said the project is intended to train women to use digital platforms such as smart phones, social media, online banking and so on in their everyday life.
He said the theme of this year’s Women’s Day celebrations – ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’ – is apt for a changing world. However, before using technology for gender equality, there is a need to examine the digital divide that exists in the world. There are huge disparities in making technology and digital facilities available to the people.
Besides the financial aspects, the digital divide has social implications too. Only 60% of the women in the world used the Internet. For men, it is 75%. In India, only 30% of the women used the Internet. It is expected that by 2050, 75% of all jobs in the world will be in the area of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). However, women’s participation in the sector is only 20% now. If this continues, differences between men and women in emerging job sectors will be huge, said Mr. Vijayan.
This gap between men and women in the digital sector should be erased, and digital divide and employment disparities in new technology and the problem of cybercrime should be overcome, he said.
The government, Mr. Vijayan said, is implementing a number of projects to reduce the digital divide. Kerala has declared the Internet a right of the people. It is with this objective that the K-FON project has been implemented. It is nearing completion. In the first phase, 100 families in each Assembly segment will receive get a free K-FON connection, he said.
Minister for Women and Child Development Veena George presided.
The Chief Minister also gave away the Vanitharatna awards of the State government to K.C. Lekha in the sports category; theatre and cine actor Nilambur Ayisha in the category of women who battled the odds; Lakshmi N. Menon in the category of women and child empowerment; and R.S. Sindhu in the education and science and technology sectors.
