Policy statements and ideal principles incorporating gender dimensions need support from various sectors of the society to turn them into practical utilities. Despite the constitutional obligations and policy declarations, it is often found that gender equality and women’s participation get a low priority in our institutions and they fail to raise awareness and bring any change in behaviour and institutional practice. In national ICT policies (referred as NICI Policy under AISI Framework), the situation attains greater concern and significance as socio-economic and cultural barriers and individual perceptions of one’s role makes women to remain within the prescribed ‘role’ even in an otherwise level playing fields. In the ICT arena, for instance, they still remain inside that outer circle of ICT users where a male-dominated society assigns specific limits beyond which women are not able to tread. Women, like other subordinate groups in the society are thought to be “muted”.
It is, therefore, very clear that due to the pressure of prevalent social contexts it often becomes very difficult to initiate even a different view of ‘value systems’ as it operates in a classroom as well as in the perceptions of a student at a given time. To incorporate the gender equity and women’s agenda in the ICT policies, we must therefore, break the silence first and sensitize our women and the society in general about the issues. This will create a catalytic environment in the ICT arena overriding the exclusion-inclusion syndrome that ails our current digital power relations today.
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