When Nirmala Padmanabhan, the head of economics department at St Teresa’s College in Kochi, speaks about self reliance, it’s not just another cliched sermon on women empowerment. She has a clear plan on how to make it practical in this digital age. Padmanabhan and a bunch of her students have compiled all data, perhaps for the very first time in India, on how to access essential e-governance services, which a woman would need during her lifetime, offered by the Kerala Government, online.
The data, arranged in a life cycle pattern from birth to death, has been published in the form of a 30-page handbook called e-Jaalakam. The book, which took six months to compile was released on September 10. It became a roaring success when it hit schools and households in the city and would soon be introduced across Kerala. “We just wanted to make people know, especially women, on how to access basic government services. How will you download birth, marriage and death certificates? How to track case status in Kerala High Court, files in the government offices, check status or make changes on Aaadhar or ration card? There are many such questions, the answers of which are available online but many of us are ignorant about them. So we made a databank which can guide people to access these services online,” explains the 48-year-old. She holds UG and PG degrees in economics from Little Flower College, Guruvayoor (1982-85) and Karyavattom campus of Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram (1985-87), respectively. She went on to do an MPhil in applied economics from Center for Development, Thiruvananthapuram (1987-90), and a PhD in ‘Gender dimension of IT sector in Kerala’ from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam (2005-08).
Though she started it as a small, unassuming project, its gender impact has made it one of the most significant projects in a Kerala campus. The handbook literally means handholding people, especially women, into participatory governance and increases their clout in decision making. Economically, once a significant user group starts accessing government schemes online, the project can become a major reason for more transparency and less corruption, which means more economic efficiency for the government.
Among Padmanabhan’s significant achievements are membership of Shuchitwa Varsham, a programme for waste management by Kochi Corporation and serving as Convenor of Environmental Master’s Training Program for the same corporation. She also prepared the Kerala Institute of Local Administration’s report on ‘Women Elected Representatives in Kerala’.
Seeing the potential of the project, the Kerala State E-Governance Mission and the State IT Mission have already extended its support in training students of St Teresa’s and to publish copies of their handbook. The Federal Bank and Rainbow Publications has also come out to support the venture. The IT@School Project has agreed to arrange classes for school students, based on this handbook. And most significantly, the National E-governance Mission has asked the college to handover the e-Jaalakam handbook to deliberate how it can be implemented across India.
So how did it all start? “We were surprised that how a state like Kerala, which has near total literacy, can come down to the 10th place in the National Family Health survey when it comes to participatory governance and decision-making of women. This meant that traditional methods of development have not translated into real gender freedom,” Padmanabhan says. “As a college professor, taking classes are just not enough for me. Degree students have the right age, the time and capacity to make an impact in the society,” says Padmanabhan. Currently, Padmanabhan is preparing a scientific waste segregation and management methods for several local resident’s associations.
The data, arranged in a life cycle pattern from birth to death, has been published in the form of a 30-page handbook called e-Jaalakam. The book, which took six months to compile was released on September 10. It became a roaring success when it hit schools and households in the city and would soon be introduced across Kerala. “We just wanted to make people know, especially women, on how to access basic government services. How will you download birth, marriage and death certificates? How to track case status in Kerala High Court, files in the government offices, check status or make changes on Aaadhar or ration card? There are many such questions, the answers of which are available online but many of us are ignorant about them. So we made a databank which can guide people to access these services online,” explains the 48-year-old. She holds UG and PG degrees in economics from Little Flower College, Guruvayoor (1982-85) and Karyavattom campus of Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram (1985-87), respectively. She went on to do an MPhil in applied economics from Center for Development, Thiruvananthapuram (1987-90), and a PhD in ‘Gender dimension of IT sector in Kerala’ from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam (2005-08).
Though she started it as a small, unassuming project, its gender impact has made it one of the most significant projects in a Kerala campus. The handbook literally means handholding people, especially women, into participatory governance and increases their clout in decision making. Economically, once a significant user group starts accessing government schemes online, the project can become a major reason for more transparency and less corruption, which means more economic efficiency for the government.
Among Padmanabhan’s significant achievements are membership of Shuchitwa Varsham, a programme for waste management by Kochi Corporation and serving as Convenor of Environmental Master’s Training Program for the same corporation. She also prepared the Kerala Institute of Local Administration’s report on ‘Women Elected Representatives in Kerala’.
Seeing the potential of the project, the Kerala State E-Governance Mission and the State IT Mission have already extended its support in training students of St Teresa’s and to publish copies of their handbook. The Federal Bank and Rainbow Publications has also come out to support the venture. The IT@School Project has agreed to arrange classes for school students, based on this handbook. And most significantly, the National E-governance Mission has asked the college to handover the e-Jaalakam handbook to deliberate how it can be implemented across India.
So how did it all start? “We were surprised that how a state like Kerala, which has near total literacy, can come down to the 10th place in the National Family Health survey when it comes to participatory governance and decision-making of women. This meant that traditional methods of development have not translated into real gender freedom,” Padmanabhan says. “As a college professor, taking classes are just not enough for me. Degree students have the right age, the time and capacity to make an impact in the society,” says Padmanabhan. Currently, Padmanabhan is preparing a scientific waste segregation and management methods for several local resident’s associations.
Source: http://newindianexpress.com/education/edex/E-Jaalakam-for-Educating-Eves/2013/12/02/article1919938.ece
No comments:
Post a Comment