Study on Availability, Accessibility and Problems Associated with Use of ICTs among Rural Women of Assam, India

Abstract

This study analyse the availability as well as accessibility and problems associated with use of ICTs among rural women from the state of Assam and similarly Jorhat and Nagaon districts of Assam, India was selected for the present study including a total number of 400 respondents who were selected as considering the Simple Random sampling method. The findings revealed that majority of the farmers are having mobile phones as well as television and radio. Further ranking method was used to identify the problems faced by the respondent with use of ICTs. Among the various problems faced by the respondents while using the ICTs, “Lack of confidence while using ICTs” has been given ranked I (0.96), followed by “High cost of ICT Services”, assigned ranked II (0.91) and “Irregularity in power supply”, was ranked III (0.89). To provide benefits to the women farmers by using the ICTs and to reduce the gender imbalances from the society rural women’s access towards ICTs and the constraints associated while use of ICT by the rural need to be studied. Hence the present study has been undertaken to address some of these areas. Thus as a whole the main purpose of this study examines the extent of rural women’s availability, accessibility and constraints associated while use of ICTs by rural women.