Girls in ICT Day- Why should girls care about it

Girls in ICT Day- Why should girls care about it

 

- Sarwagya Raj Pandey

Come 28th April, its Girls in ICT Day, A day dedicated to all those girls working in the field of Information and communication Technology, the field that has defined this century, and redefined human endeavor all together. It is not a new phenomenon to celebrate certain days as a special day. Lately this trend has blossomed. And like many of those days, Girls in ICT is a significant festival every girl must be aware of. This day is being celebrated to make young girls aware of the possibilities that lie ahead in the field of ICT and how it is a very important issue for womanhood. Roughly half of the world population are female. Social scientists term this century as the age of Information. Various names, like the Digital age, generation X, The Facebook generation, The information age, e-generation among others have been coined for this phenomenon. All these terms have one thing in common- ICT. INFORMATION-COMMUNICATION-TECHNOLOGY. Nothing has had more impact on human civilization in the last 4 decades than ICT. And it would a tragedy if half of the world population are left out on this opportunity.

If the long cherished dream of every feminist and female right activist of a society where women have equal footings to man is to be realized, it is imperative for the girls to play a larger and prominent role in the ICT sector. The entire sectors, be it commerce, trade, medicine, research apart from entertainment and communication have been greatly altered with the coming of technology. The wireless made the world a smaller place. And then came the internet. It made the world a newer place. Today, everything real is available in the virtual world. The e-commerce or the online market has rejuvenated the shoppers. If you are not in the social media, you are as good as non-existent. Prestigious degrees can be acquired right from your home. Billion dollar deals are signed through webcast. The world has definitely changed. For the good or for the bad is another question, but it has changed. And it is imperative for us to change with it. The patriarchal approach of the society in the bygone era disadvantaged the females due to which they were not able to catch up with their male counterparts. Because of that costly mistake for a very large part of the human civilization almost half of the population were denied opportunity.CAN

 

But things changed rapidly thereafter and now we at least are trying to build a system that is unbiased of gender. But due to centuries of neglect, it is not an easy task to narrow down the gender divide that is in place at the moment. It is a long arduous process. Many controversial, biased and sometimes even contradictory laws have been framed for this sake. But history has proven time and again that there are certain watershed moments which changes the course of history. And on a positive note, we could well be witnessing that moment. Information technology has changed the entire world and has penetrated every aspects of our life. Today, access to internet is being looked upon as a basic right that every citizen is entitled to. ICT has had far reaching effect on the civilization in the last 40 years and has changed the age old practices. Paper, the 2000 year old invention is gradually being replaced with "copies" or electronic documents. Postal services and mails have become rare. So it has had far reaching effects. It has triggered social change, prosperity and economic change. And that too, at a rapid pace never witnessed in the history until now. 2-3 year old apparatus becomes obsolete.

 

A special law has been propounded to explain this rate of technology and is called the Moore's law that states that the size of the Integrated circuit halves and the number of transistors in it doubles in every eighteen months. Hence the present generation has grown used to path breaking innovation in quick successions. And this is the right moment for women to take their share of opportunity. Technology is the key to any innovation today and every aspects of our life is being linked to it. The centuries of disadvantage meted on to women can gradually narrowed down if they can cash in on this opportunity. Today anyone with a will can change the way of lifestyle from his or her dormitory. Like Mark Zuckerburg did from his dormitory. Or Steve Jobs from his garage. Many young entrepreneurs, male and female are in the path to change the course of history. The ICT is the way forward. It touches every sphere of human life now. Everything is being interconnected with the help of technology and so ICT is being introduced in every field. We shouldn't repeat the mistakes committed earlier by excluding women from this opportunity now. They must be welcomed. Only then will we be able to realize the true potential of humanity. Thankfully ICT is a level playing field which is free from the patriarchal mindset and hence anybody with talent can capitalize on the opportunity.

 

What the various legislations, quotas and discriminatory policies couldn't achieve, can be achieved by encouraging women to join and avail the opportunities that is up for grabs in the filed of ICT. The social and economic divide between the men and women that had widened due to years of oppression can be narrowed down if the girls of today cash in on the plethora of opportunity that is available in the field of ICT. However the new Nepal will be, at least one thing is sure; That it will be a digital Nepal. Hence if we can narrow the digital divide between men and women, the socio-economic divide will narrow down itself. And likewise the girls of today will be the empowered women of tomorrow with complete right to self determination. The long cherished dream every girl has seen.

 

 

 

 

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