IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs – 26th December, 2015

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IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs – 26th December, 2015

NATIONAL

TOPIC:  

• General Studies 1: Role of women and women’s organization, poverty and developmental issues; Social empowerment; 
• General Studies 2: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
• General Studies 3: Awareness in the fields of IT; Science and Technology – developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

Raising “HER” voice through internet connectivity

• The internet opens up a world of knowledge, from digital books and Wikipedia to online courses.
• Research shows that when women have access to reading apps, they use them significantly more than men.

Case study of a 23 year old Bangladesh women:

• Earlier this year in 2015, a 23-year-old Bangladeshi woman needed help.
• She was pregnant and didn’t know if it was safe to drink the water from her local well.
• She opened Maya — an app that answers anonymous questions about everything from health to legal protection.
• She got the advice she needed, and she’s about to give birth after a healthy pregnancy.

Advantages of being connected through internet:

1. Economic empowerment:

• Becoming connected opens up economic opportunities.
• In a survey of large developing countries, nearly half of the women who were connected had applied for a job on the internet, and nearly a third had earned extra income online.
• Women use the internet to start businesses.

Case study: 

1. On the South African site SmartBusiness, which helps entrepreneurs, women make up 28 per cent of the users — and ask more than 60 per cent of the questions. Armed with information, women grow our economies.
2. In India, the online store PelliPoola Jada was started three years ago by three women. Today, they employ 200 more.

2. Child welfare and development:

• Empowering women economically isn’t just good for them, it’s good for everyone.
• Improving women’s access to income and technology improves child welfare and nutrition.
• Research shows that countries with more equality in employment and education have lower child mortality and faster economic growth.

3. Gives women HER voice:

• The internet also gives women voice — and allows their voices to be heard.

Case study:

1. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Hero Women set up their own internet café to tell their stories, and they successfully petitioned for the appointment of a US special envoy to the war-torn region.
2. In Kenya, women set up Her Voice to fight gender-based violence by advocating for legal reform and working with victim support groups.
3. In Brazil, women created I Will Not Shut Up, an app that maps assaults on women so that community leaders can be held accountable.

Gender inequality in internet usage:

• Despite the fact that the internet helps women get educated, start businesses, build communities, and assert their rights, access to this vital resource is still restricted — and sharply divided by gender.
• Globally, four billion people lack internet access, most of them women. In the developing world, nearly 25 per cent fewer women than men are connected; in sub-Saharan Africa, it’s 45 per cent.
• This inequality of access is holding back progress towards a safer, fairer, and healthier world.
• The internet gender gap is widening the global development gap.

Free Basics : An initiative to bridge digital divide

• Facebook’s Internet.org initiative uses the Free Basics app and website to connect people in 30 countries.
• Free Basics makes basic internet services — including news, search and health information available for free.
• It’s open to all developers, so anyone can create content for it.

Apps in free basics:

• Maya, which helped the woman in Bangladesh, is on Free Basics; so is BabyCenter, which 3.4 million families have used to learn about parenting.
• In just one month in India, people on Free Basics accessed healthcare information one million times.
• In rural Colombia, people are using a Free Basics service called 1DOC3 to speak to doctors, many of them for the very first time.

Way ahead:

• A connected world is a world where all people can find a way to a better future for themselves and their children.
• By working together to connect women, we can make that better future a reality.

Connecting the dots:

1. The internet gender gap is widening the global development gap. Critically analyse the statement wrt growing gender digital divide in India.
2. Critically examine the concept of free basics by Facebook. Is internet.org initiative by Facebook, a violation of net neutrality
3. Free basics initiative has a good potential of reducing digital divide in India. Critically analyse.

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http://iasbaba.com/2015/11/iasbabas-daily-current-affairs-14th-november-2015/

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