Changing Priorities

Today, numerous Bangladeshi women are taking charge of their personal and professional lives. However, widespread gender bias and violence continue to challenge their dreams of emancipation and empowerment. Have the two women Prime Ministers of Bangladesh made a difference in the life of an average woman?

South Asian politics is dominated by dynastic trends and the presence of women leaders at the helm of affairs. The former is an unfortunate reality but the latter should be a source of pride for developing nations that have traditionally struggled with gender issues to provide their women with some very basic human rights. Whether it is the assassinated former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan and Indira Gandhi of India, or the still vibrant Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, we must credit these women for their determination and persistence against the norms of their male-dominated cultures. Unfortunately, however, that is not a testament to women’s empowerment because not only do most of these women leaders have a strong male connection as primary reason for their rise to power, but also the life of an average woman has remained largely unchanged under their rule.

Bangladesh is a developing nation of 165 million with an adult literacy rate of about 55%. It has been run almost exclusively for the past two decades by Bangladesh’s two Begums – current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Awami League (AL), and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s independence hero and first prime minister murdered in 1975. Khaleda Zia is the widow of former president, Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman assassinated in a failed coup attempt in 1981.

As Prime Ministers, the Begums have been known to run corrupt regimes, and faced criminal charges. In 2007, the army tried to end their monopoly on power when it seized power by splitting their vote banks and trying to create alternate forces. However, the Begums’ parties proved resilient and Sheikh Hasina came back to power in Dec 2008 and promptly resumed business as usual by filing more corruption charges against her opponent.

It is safe to say the last two decades have seen Bangladeshi women become more visible on the social and professional scene, but the gains have fallen short of expectation, especially under successive women Prime Minsters. So while the Begums focus on each other, the majority of women fight their own battles at home and in the social sphere against harassment, assault, kidnapping, acid throwing, and murder over dowry disputes.

Amnesty International reported that in 2010 police had received more than 3,500 complaints of physical abuse of women over dowry disputes, and in 2011, violence against women topped all crimes reported to the police between January and June, and 1586 out of 7,285 complaints were of rape cases. Due to prevalent patriarchal social attitudes, women in general, but especially from low socioeconomic backgrounds, lack access to resources for protection or legal redress. Domestic violence, however, transcends class barriers and acid-throwing is a brutal favoured punishment of spurned suitors or disgruntled husbands. There is also extensive trafficking of women to other countries in Asia and Middle East, lured by job prospects but forced into prostitution.

Moreover, The Daily Star quoted United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) on International Women’s Day 2012 asserting that much effort was still needed to improve the lives of women in Bangladesh. The report said that almost half of the female population in Bangladesh is married before reaching 16, which results in higher pregnancy rate in adolescence, and undernourished mothers then give birth to underweight babies. Many young girls are still denied schooling and face bleak futures. UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon urged the government, civil society and the private sector to work for gender equality in Bangladesh, which had not kept pace with strides in economic development.

Clearly, Bangladesh’s economic gains are not fully transferred to its women though their contribution to the economy is substantial, especially to the garment industry which is the source of 90% of Bangladesh’s foreign exchange. Institutions like Grameen Bank and BRAC have revolutionized the lives of many rural women by extending micro-credit to them, and have contributed to their economic empowerment, but unfortunately, Grameen Bank founder, the Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, has been attacked by Sheikh Hasina, ironically again, in what is seen as a political move.

Gender bias has also often surfaced through religious expression. In April 2011, CNN reported   that when the government announced its Women Development Policy 2011 about inheritance of property, protests broke out from the radical Islamic parties that considered it a violation of the Quran’s injunctions about inheritance. Ironically, the opposition party BNP of Kahleda Zia was reported to be supporting the protest, undermining the cause of women’s empowerment just to gain some political mileage.

In July 2011, Human Rights Watch reiterated its concern for Bangladeshi women who are increasingly on the receiving end of religious fatwas issued by so-called scholars, even against the rulings of civil courts, in shalishes, the traditional dispute resolution methods. These decrees have resulted in humiliating punishments resulting in death for young girls wrongly accused. The punishments include imposing fines, lashing, cutting hair or blackening faces, and ostracizing families, carried out by vigilantes. While many of these incidents go unreported, human rights groups claim at least 300 such incidents have occurred in the last decade. In 2011, one particular case in Shariatpur district highlighted the seriousness of the issue when the shalish ordered 100 lashes to Hena Akhter for an alleged affair, when she had reportedly been sexually abused. She collapsed while the punishment was being carried out, and later died. Thus, the government’s failure to effectively address such incidences and implement legislation continues to result in grievous harm to women under the watch of their woman Prime Minister.

 It should be a matter of pride for Bangladesh that in November 2010 it was elected to the board of UN Women, but to do justice to this role Bangladesh’s Begums need to shift focus from personal and political gains and use their position to aggressively to work towards emancipation and empowerment of the average woman. Only then can the Bangladeshi women be truly proud of their Begums. 

A version of this article was published in SouthAsia, April 2012, as Changing Priorities

Futile Efforts

“We can help train an army, we can help equip an army, we can help build facilities for the army, but only the Afghan people can breathe a soul into that army.” Lt Gen. Karl Eikenberry, former Commander, Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan( CFC-A)

The decade long War on Terror in Afghanistan seems to be coming to a close – or at least scaling down to a limited presence of foreign forces from active combat to a supportive role by 2014. Understandably, there is both hope and apprehension not only for the Afghanis but also the most affected neighboring country of Pakistan, and the US whose terrorism-related pursuits have resulted in its investment of enormous manpower and material resources into the Afghan quagmire. However, a strong and independent Afghanistan is crucial to the security of the region. That requires, among other things, a successful transition of responsibility for primary security to the Afghan National Army (ANA).

Afghanistan has a long history of interruptions in political process due to tribal rivalries and violence, and external invasion and occupation, and existence of tribal militias goes back much longer than the presence of the ANA. The country’s history of resistance against foreign invaders and internal insurgencies also goes side by side with other crippling issues of gender discrimination, illiteracy – only 28% of Afghans can read and write. (UNICEF, 2008) – its ranking of174/178 countries on the global Human Development Index, and its status of a leader in illegal opium production supporting 90% of global production (UNDP, 2007). All these issues do not contribute to a promising picture. 

In 2002, realizing that bringing ANA back on its feet would be crucial to bringing any form of stability in the future of the country, the US and NATO began training and organizing the ANA. Now, having achieved some major objectives of the War on Terror (WoT), and with exit strategies of NATO and the US forces for 2014 in place, building ANA’s capacity has assumed more importance. Over the years, NATO and the US trainers faced numerous challenges due to post-Soviet era chaos and the violence and insurgency resulting from WoT,  including working with non-existent infrastructure, navigating traditional ethnic rivalries and crippling levels of illiteracy, widespread drug abuse, and ineffective role played by the central government.

Clearly, no quick solution was possible. So, work began despite these serious inadequacies. A report titled, “It’s Starting to Look a Lot Like an Army” (LA Times, 2006) quotes Commander Leppert talking about the difficulty of the job, “We are building an airplane while the airplane is flying.”  While praising the hard work of the Afghan troops, the report described how the “Afghan commanders and soldiers complain of poor pay, faulty weapons, ammunition shortages and lack of protective gear. US trainers, while praising Afghan soldiers for their bravery, complain of slovenly appearance, lack of discipline, petty theft, mistreated equipment and infiltration of the army by Taliban spies or soldiers who sell information.” Several incidents have surfaced over the years where infiltrators were caught trying to gain access to information and some officers were caught for arms trafficking. The ANP has been implicated in massacre of civilians (Matthieu Aikins, The Atlantic), and the Afghan Local Police in killings, rape, abductions and illegal raids (Human Rights Watch Sept 2011). That makes the job of preparing an effective and respected army even harder.

Despite the challenges, and while the overall perception of security has declined periodically, ANA is generally seen in a positive light by the general population. An Asia Foundation (2006) opinion poll also supports that view, stating that 87% of Afghans still support the ANA because they see it as an alternative to other more corrupt government forces. NATO trainers applaud small successes of ANA and find it satisfying that ANA is now somewhat prepared to play a significant role in actively participating in, and sometimes leading, military operations. Their participation helps NATO and US forces to carry out bigger operations. Partnering with the Afghan forces allows them to make contact with local populations while they conduct combat operations with insurgents. The importance of forming a relationship of trust with the local population through Afghan forces cannot be ignored as the exit for a major part of foreign troops draws near, while liaisons are needed for others who plan to remain behind in supportive roles for another decade. Over the years the supportive and leading role of ANA has been tested with leading combat and search/clearance operations successfully, though on a smaller scale. These successes however, do not predict a strong ANA in the near future. It is going to be a long haul.

In the post-NATO/US Afghanistan, ANA’s active participation has significant importance for Pakistan which needs that stability in its neighboring country to be able to send millions of Afghan refugees and insurgents back to their home country. With its own economic challenges growing bigger by the day, Pakistan is ill-equipped to support any longer these refugees it took in on humanitarian grounds firstly in the Soviet war of the 80s, and later amid insurgency and violence following WoT. The fallout from the WoT has crippled Pakistan’s security as well, despite international support and extensive internal efforts. Pakistan’s geo-strategic location offers economic dividends that Pakistan has not been able to utilize due to security concerns and Pakistan also needs that stability to be able to check Afghanistan’s opium production landing in Pakistan on its way to European markets, and destroying the youth of the country.

 ANA’s work in Afghanistan is not going to be easy after most of the coalition forces leave in 2014. If NATO and US make their exit without ensuring that the ANA is well-equipped and trained enough to exert a positive influence over the war-weary and traumatized population, the rewards reaped from their work so far might be lost entirely and the country might slip back into chaos as militias become more organized. While addressing ANA’s internal issues is extremely important to achieving any success with them,  it is also important to understand that unless poor governance, corruption and human rights abuses are addressed side by side, stability in Afghanistan will remain a distant dream. Ultimately, only “the Afghan people can breathe a soul into that army”.

 Published in SouthAsia as Futile Efforts, Feb 2012

India - a Quest for Identity

Living in a melting pot of races, religions and cultures, the inhabitants of Northeast India continue to struggle with an identity crisis while battling decades of ethnic conflict.

Northeastern India consists of the seven sister states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, and parts of North Bengal. This is a very diverse region and has strong ethnic and cultural ties with Southeast and East Asia while it is officially a part of India since 1947. These states constitute a special category which is officially recognized by the Indian government. The major religions practiced here include Christianity, Hinduism and Islam.  

Northeast India has seen a steady flow of immigrants throughout history, which accounts for its ethnic, linguistic cultural and religious diversity. Linguistically, the Bengali and Assamese speakers have been the most in numbers, as Subir Bhaumik pointed out in Ethnicity, Ideology and Religion: Separatist Movements in India’s Northeast, and the statistics regarding linguistic majority have been influenced by political affiliations e.g. in Assam, the migrant Muslims of Bengali origin registered as Assamese speakers between 1947 and 1982 to become part of the larger community, but after the 1983 riots, many of these Muslims began to register as Bengali speakers, changing the statistics about the number of Assamese speakers in the 1991 and 2001 Census.

There are three main groups inhabiting the Northeastern region which have been at odds with each other: the Assamese, the Bengalis and the tribal communities. Historically, wave after wave of migration towards the region was directed from the Eastern Asian countries like Tibet, Burma and Thailand, and the 1947 Partition led to increase of Bengali Hindu and Muslim refugees. As happens with demographic change and tipping of ethnic balance in any region when also accelerated by political maneuvering, a feeling of discrimination and deprivation slowly established itself and hatt has led to a constant sparking of ethnic violence for decades, uprooting families and claiming lives.

This sense of discrimination has been aggravated to a level that the resulting agitation has led to accusations of changed political loyalties of the Assamese towards the Indian government. This attitude of distrust has sustained in the minds of some politicians and policy makers and has prevented implementation of policies for social uplifting and effective conflict management. The fact that is conveniently ignored by politicians is that the historical differences and resulting conflict actually originate from the Colonial era discriminatory treatment of Assamese, and has continued due to mismanagement by the government and exploitation by political leaders.  

Several reasons are acknowledged by economists and policy makers to be the cause of conflict in this region. One of them is the region’s geographical location as a poorly integrated remote corner of the country. Assam is landlocked by Bangladesh, Bhutan and Tibet and is joined by a narrow corridor with India through Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Some blame successive economic and political policies of the Indian government relying on use of force to suppress conflict rather than to manage and understanding it, and sometimes even just focusing on temporary political gains.  Dr. Shakuntala Bora of Gauhati University finds in the course of her research that the reasons for the identity crisis of the ethnic groups in Assam include their awareness of being different from the majority group, a sense of being discriminated against and a strong desire for a significant share in political power – all of which are legitimate concerns for self-assertion.  Dov Ronen, who has been affiliated with Harvard University’s Centre for International Affairs, also suggests that ethnic nationalism is just an expression of self determination and, “ethnicity is politicized into the ethnic factor when an ethnic group is in conflict with the political elite over such issues as the use of limited resources or the allocation of benefits.”

The Northeasterners also suffer discrimination due to their physical appearance. Racially, they are considered to be closer to Southeast Asia, and have trouble fitting in and being accepted by the larger Indian population. The discrimination has resulted in a steady increase over the years in trafficking of, and sexual violence against, women which is seen, based to a 2011 study of North-East Support Center and helpline (NESCH), by Madhu Chandra as “a reflection of India's caste practices and social system as majority of North-East Indians come from Scheduled Castes and Tribes and ethnically Mongoloid race, which falls out of caste hierarchy.” Though the Indian constitution protects right of minorities, practically, there has been little protection from hate crimes and exploitation for the Northeasterners even in the capital, Delhi. Northeasterners working or studying in Delhi have complained of having little support from the police or legal system. Hence, it is seen that most of the cases go unreported. Even when reported, however, they are often denied FIRs or their cases are delayed by the police and courts. According to the NESCH, of the cases studied less than half were taken up by police, out of which only 1% actually made it to court. Derogatory terms are also in common usage for referring to Northeastern men and women. To add to their misery, Northeast Indians face identity crisis not only in their own country, but due to their East Asian looks but Indian passports, they are also meted out the same treatment when they travel to adjoining Bhutan, Nepal, China and Myanmar. This discriminatory behavior often fuels anger and sense of deprivation among the inhabitants of this region and contributes to socio-political unrest and communal violence. It is no wonder that the Northeast has been India’s most insurgency affected region.

A crisis in multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies may result from suppression or exploitation of any group. To prevent it from blowing into a full-fledged conflict, we need policies that prevent polarization and encourage integration. Politicization of ethnicity which turns it into ethnic conflict has to stop. Without effective solution, or continuance of discriminatory policies, the situation only leads to insurgency and militancy as observed in Northeast India for the last many decades.

 Published : SouthAsia Magazine, as India: A Quest for Identity Dec, 2011 

The Development Challenge

Feature

Many South Asian countries continue to receive financial and technical support from the Asian Development Bank. However, development planners and practitioners urge ADB for reform in its policies and procedural approach in order to be truly reflective of its commitment to poverty reduction

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) was established in 1966 with a commitment “to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people”. It is financed by 67 member countries, and works closely with development agencies, governments and in the private sector, providing financial and technical assistance. A brief description of some assistance projects provided by the ADB to some South Asian countries from the ADB website is as follows:

India is a founding member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its fifth largest shareholder. Loans amounting to $22,228.15 million have been approved for various projects in India since 1986, which include among others, the clean energy initiatives and rebuilding and reconstruction projects. In support of Tata Power project, ADB provided a loan covering about 70% of the project cost. To assist the effected people of 2001 Gujrat earthquake, in which nearly 2 million people lost their homes and thousands lost their lives, ADB approved a $350 million project in financing housing, rebuilding infrastructure, and restoring power supply and livelihoods.

Pakistan, the 13th largest shareholder, has received about $ 20 billion in loans so far, utilized in supporting development initiatives in infrastructure, energy, social sectors and governance. In 2005, as Pakistan struggled to handle the worst earthquake of its history that affected 3.5 million, the ADB provided valuable assistance in various forms, including loans for materials used in rebuilding and reconstruction. Similarly, when the 2010 floods impacted 20 million people, sweeping away 2.2m hectares of farmland, the ADB not only sought to establish a trust fund for other partners to channel their contribution, but approved a $3 million grant with 200 million pledged over the next two years for urgent relief and rehabilitation needs.

Sri Lanka has received $4.69 billion in loans and $104.8 million for 238 technical assistance projects since joining the ADB in 1966. ADB’s support provides opportunities for Sri Lanka’s disadvantaged communities to tackle the effects of years of conflict, and natural calamities like the 2004 tsunami. Important Microfinance and skills training is also provided by the ADB-supported projects to empower women, giving them a choice to stay near their families rather than migrate to the Middle East as domestic workers, where they are employed in menial jobs and suffer widespread abuse. ADB has also been actively involved in helping Sri Lanka’s underfunded educational system get back on track, providing electricity to schools, scholarships for students and teachers, and capacity building.

Bangladesh joined the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1973, and is one of the largest borrowers of concessionary Asian Development Fund resources. The cumulative lending in 2009 amounted to about $10.89 billion for loans, with $195.15 million for technical assistance grants for 348 projects.

Despite injecting millions of dollars into development spending in Asia, the ADB has received strong criticism from the international community for being a highly centralized and unaccountable institution, catering more to the demands of its major donors, Japan and the US, thereby contributing to serious setbacks for the very people it aims to help. There are strong objections to policy reforms and privatization of state institutions advocated by the ADB in borrowing countries, which result in downsizing and, hence, increased joblessness. The member governments, when pressurized to keep up with debt as well as maintaining growth, often are forced to take the route of increased taxes and result in less long term benefits for their populations.

Oxfam Australia has criticized the ADB of insensitivity to concerns of local communities by undermining “people's human rights through projects that have detrimental outcomes for poor and marginalized communities.” The bank has been charged by NGOs with causing displacement of 100,000 to 150,000 people in Asia each year due to ineffective implementation of its well-meaning but lop-sided approach to development planning and implementation

ActionAid, an international anti-poverty agency formed in 1972, has called for wide ranging reforms of the ADB, and asserted, “Because of their failed instruments, poverty is higher, you see rising unemployment, you see malnutrition, all over Asia.” More than 10% of the total external debt of the Asia Pacific is also owed to the ADB. Although some of these poorest countries perpetually struck in the cycle of debt could benefit from write-offs, there was strong opposition expressed by Director General of ADB, Mr. Nag, against the idea of debt cancellation when it came up as part of the UN MDGs and insisted, “We as an institution do not do that. We believe that we are a developmental institution, but are also a bank”.

The bank has also received criticism for its lack of insight, or will to implement, environmental safeguards in pursuit of its goals, often resulting in short term development value but long term environmental damage, like the coal-powered fire station in Thailand. A US-based NGO, Environmental Defense, has charged that “The ADB's environmental categorization is significantly weaker than that of the World Bank, which requires all projects classified as sensitive to undergo an environmental assessment. But such an assessment is not always required for ADB projects classified as sensitive.”

Other issues where ADB has come under fire is its disregard for issues of larger political implications, like the territorial dispute between India and China where the ADB endorsed a $2.9 billion funding strategy for proposed projects for India Country Partnership strategy, directly impacting India’s relations with China. China expressed strong condemnation of the bank’s move which “not only seriously tarnishes its own name, but also undermines the interests of its members.”

In conclusion, ADB’s strategies might be more effective if they promoted a balance between economic growth and ensuring livelihood sustenance for the disadvantaged populations of South Asia. Moreover, planning development initiatives with full participation of local communities and other relevant stakeholders, rather than catering to international marketing concerns would bring better results and appreciation for the well-meaning but constantly challenged role that the ADB struggles to play in its anti-poverty initiatives.

SOUTHASIA, The Development Challenge APRIL 2011

Tools for Progress

FEATURE

The development of new and innovative forms of media over the years has served its purpose not only as a means of communication for social networking but also as a vital tool for development purposes.

Social interaction and communication are integral to human development. It is no surprise then that we depend to such a large extent on the growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for efficient management and running of organizations and for development of our communities.

The various ICTs we employ include print, electronic and, increasingly, the more advanced new-age media of internet. Print media has a long history among the media sources, and includes newspapers, magazines, books and brochures etc. Among the electronic media, radio and television remain the more popular forms while CDs and DVDs for entertainment and educational purposes have dominated the public sphere in the past couple of decades. However, the internet outshines every other media form due to speed, ease of access and the scope of its range. It provides unlimited opportunities for mass communication through modes such as email, blogs now exceeding 60 million, social networking sites like Facebook with almost 500 million users and 70 language translations, educational research websites like Questia with over 70,000 books and 2million articles, informational search engines like Google etc.

The South Asian countries, although still more reliant on traditional sources of information due to economic limitations, have nonetheless benefitted from introduction of the new-age mass communication technology in various fields. In the field of education, for example, print media was traditionally the dominant medium of educational instruction, while radio and television have played an important role in disseminating distant learning courses. However, by incorporating online tools to enhance learning capacity of recipients, providers are offering them a whole new realm of opportunity. In Pakistan, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) established in 1974, and the more recently set up Virtual University (VU) now provide distant learning opportunities incorporating online education to supplement their existing communication technologies. Access to latest material online in comparison to the outdated and limited resources available in local libraries has enhanced the capacity of these universities.

The merits of online learning were acknowledged in a 2009 US Department of Education study which revealed that on the average, online students in the US outperformed those receiving face-to-face instruction. Manufacturers are thus offering attractive packages and products in PCs and green laptops. The reasons may be based on numerous factors. The flexibility offered by online courses in terms of time and space constraints, in addition to full-time access to diverse perspectives and experiences offered by teachers, experts, researchers and professionals present in different geographical locations enhances global awareness which is especially important in a world increasingly in need of mutual cooperation.

Another ICT tool, the mobile phone, which ushered in a whole new the era of possibilities of instant communication in the sixties, has also proven to be a useful mass literacy agent in developing countries, while simultaneously offering quick economic rewards in the form of new job markets. Due to its simple usage and instant connectivity, and unlike the need for training in computer literacy, its advantage lies in its fairly easy functionality; as are mobile phone towers easier to install and cost effective than landlines. Pakistan leads South Asia with a mobile phone penetration of 59.60 % (PTA, 2010), Bangladesh at 34% (BTRC 2010) Nepal has15% penetration and India 49.60% (TRAI, 2010). A Group Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) 2007 study estimated that the mobile industry created 220,000 jobs in Pakistan. In 2006, 54% of the total direct foreign investment in the country was also done by mobile operators (PTA).

Mobile phones are helping countries work towards achieving MDGs for education. Significant sections of South Asian countries are illiterate. According to the CIA’s The World Factbook, 2/3rds of the world’s illiterates are concentrated in just eight countries including India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and 2/3rds of all illiterate adults are women. Sms-based literacy programs in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are being implemented to empower the marginalized, especially women. The Mobilink CEO Rashid Khan recognizing the potential of this tool had rightly observed at the inception of one successful project conducted in collaboration with UNESCO, ‘"The cell phone holds the key to social development by its very nature and we want to make sure that women are part of this revolution".

In addition to education, use of mobile phones has helped improve incomes of financially marginalized small-scale service providers in diverse fields. For agricultural economies like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, the mobile phones have brought about a revolution in the lives of farmers as updated and timely access to market information through mobile phones is helping them make informed choices and hence, sound investments.

Mobile phones are also playing an increasingly important role in addressing healthcare needs of rural populations of developing countries. As observed by the World health Organization: “Information and communication technologies enable people in remote areas to have access to services and expertise otherwise unavailable to them, especially in countries with uneven distribution or chronic shortages of physicians, nurses and health technicians or where access to facilities and expert advice requires travel over long distances,”. Unfortunately, while almost 80% of physicians in these countries live and work in urban areas, the majority population lives in rural areas. A 2009 Senza Fili Consulting White paper details among other projects, the use of latest communication technologies to carry out training for healthcare workers; a trial project, called The Cisco Project, in Pakistan which combines satellite and WiMAX connectivity to provide cancer screening to rural patients; a trial in India in which Cisco and Intel used wireless connectivity to send e‐learning classes to students’ laptops, and Healthline service like the Bangladeshi telemedicine service set up by TRLA Ltd. and GrameenPhone which provides basic medical advice to patients in remote areas at negligible cost. Another estimated 10 million people have made use of GSMA’s Healthline Hotline in SouthAsia.

As a means for social change, the use of ICTs has revolutionized communication. The media is supporting people in South Asian countries plagued with massive corruption and inept governance to reinforce responsibility and transparency. In Pakistan the Lawyers Movement in 2008 was run with the help of the ICTs offering 24-hour live coverage and helped citizens mobilize support. The recent Iran election is another such example. In conflict struck regions, ordinary people have taken upon themselves to report violations of international law and to create awareness about their human rights concerns.

Social media has also brought a fundamental shift in the way we communicate in our everyday lives. Social networking sites have brought people closer by encouraging them to share perspectives on global issues. They have however, also caused rifts with clashing concepts of freedom of speech, yet opening up of dialogue between diverse nations and cultures is certainly a welcome move. However, the overexposure or intrusiveness of these social networking sites is also an element of concern for many, increasingly associated with growing crime and stress, especially among the younger, more impressionable age group.

All said, however, embracing technology is the key to development. As with any experience, responsible application is the key. The positive effect of technology on the lives of rural and urban populations in developing countries is enormous, especially where social inequality issues have been addressed. Technology alone is no guarantee of change, but can be an important part of the solution.

SouthAsia , July 2010.