Communication Across Borders: Experiences of Rural Indian Women in Using Cyber Cafes.

COMMUNICATION ACROSS BORDERS: EXPERIENCES OF RURAL INDIAN WOMEN IN USING CYBER CAFES ABSTRACT Rural Indian women have found the newly located cyber cafes (internet booths) in their villages a good medium for crossing the border of geographic isolation in the villages of India. Providing 651f employment to the rural population, agriculture is the main occupation and women are mainly secondary workers. They are able to cross this economic border through information on weather seeds, pesticides and fertilizers obtained from the Internet booths. Female foeticide, less access to food, education and other resources, early arranged marriage and child bearing, are cultural borders that restrict the village woman and yet she is becoming empowered through the Internet. Highly patriarchal, the village power structure is a political border, which has to be crossed by the rural Indian women. Now many are standing for election in the local Panchayat. Case studies of the Internet booth usage by women facilitate the crossing of all these borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]