Internet communication and gender inequalities: a rural perspective

This paper outlines the gender variations among the rural farmers with reference to Internet communication. The findings of the study based on the primary data generated from 250 farmers (constituted by 125 men and 125 farm women, randomly selected from a purposively selected region of Andhra Pradesh) reveal that the gender inequalities with respect to familiarity and accessibility to Internet technology for latest information among rural farmers were prevailing. This may because, most of the time women are overloaded with household and other activities; unlike their counterparts, men are more outreach to new technology and would not experience any cultural barriers during information acquisition from using latest communication tools. Proper education, relevant training and combined efforts of administrators, policy makers, extension workers, web owners and other agencies would definitely help the needy to utilize this new and effective medium of communication. Keywords : gender inequalities, Internet, rural India International Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development Vol. 5 2004: 110-113