MOBILE PHONES AND WORKING-CLASS WOMEN: THE CASE OF FISH VENDORS

Abstract

Mobile phones for development, while not a new concept, is being more rigorously employed in the ICT for development perspective. There is the rhetoric that mobile phones have the potential to contribute economically and socially in lives of the poor and the marginalized, thus who were previously not able derive the benefits of ICTs in the developing countries. Mobile phones have been increasingly adopted by fish vending women belonging to the marginalized fishing community in Thiruvananthapuram, India. With this background, this thesis sets to understand the reasons for its adoption, use and their perceived impacts. It also tries to understand if adoption of mobile phones has resulted in women¿s empowerment. Through qualitative ethnographic interviews of 40 mobile phone using fish vending women, the thesis findings suggest that the women¿s adoption was mainly due to the perception that owning mobile phones will result in social and economic benefits. To the question of empowerment, the findings seem to suggest that while mobile phones have the potential to contribute to economic and social empowerment of women; this potential of the technology is not being actively utilized.