Assessing Socio-economic Impact
of Rural Cellular Telecom:
Implications for Policy
Rekha Jain, T. Sastry
rekha@iimahd.ernet.in
Centre for Telecom Policy Studies
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad, India
About the Institute
• Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad, India
• Centre for Telecom Policy Studies
• (www.iimahd.ernet.in/ctps)
• Inter-disciplinary group, Mc Gill, CIDA
Introduction and Background
• Telecom and Development
• Rural Telecom
• Cellular
• Context and background of this study
• Methodology
• Sample :1000 rural respondents
• Focus of this presentation
Coverage
• Users and non-users (63%), (37%)
• Men (82%), women (18%)
• Caste : High (69%) SC\ST (5%), OBC(12),
Others (13%)
• Occupation:, business (40%), service(27%),
agriculture(22%), labourers(3%)
• Upto Rs. 5000 (85%)
• upto 2000(22%)
• 2001- 5000(63%)
– >5000 (15%)
Purpose of making calls
(percentage)
All Male Female
• Emergency 41 41 38
• Social 92 91 96
• Govt. 5 5 3
• Business 24 27 10
• Not ans 1 2 9
• Base 637 523 114
Number of times Rural PCO used
(Per cent)
– All Male Female
• Upto 5 62 60 68
• 6-10 18 18 20
• 11-15 6 6 4
• Above 15 15 16 8
• Base 637 523 114
Amount paid for making calls
All Male Female
• Upto Rs 10 30 32 20
• 10-25 32 33 28
• 26-50 36 35 36
• 51-75 12 11 17
• 75-100 2 2 4
• Above 100 2 2 1
• Base 634 521 113
Purpose wise average duration
of calls - Social(Per cent)
• All Male Female
• upto 3 minutes 81 82 78
• 3-5 minutes 15 15 18
• Above 5 minutes 4 4 5
• Base 601 490 111
Purpose wise duration of calls :business
• All Male Female
• Upto 3 minutes 44 42 73
• 3-5 minutes 42 43 27
• Above 5 minutes 15 16 0
• Base 158 147 11
Receive calls through mobile PCO
• All Male Female
• Yes 28 30(181) 19 (22)
• No 72 70 81
• Base 637 523 114
Perception on price, likely
decrease in price by Re 1
• All Male Female
• Price All Male Female
• Increase 70 69 76
• Reasonable 30 32 20
• Decrease 5 5 2
• High 69 67 79 • Same 25 26 22
• Base 396 333 63
• Base 635 521 114
Number of Trips, Amount
• All Male Female
• Upto 3 79% 76% 91%
• 4-6 12% 12% 6%
• 7-10 3% 4% 1%
• Above 10 6% 7% 1%
• Base 476 395 81
• Significant savings in Rs amount even by
women.
Information Needs
• Document % trips cost (d) Cost (t) Time
• Ration card 86 3 75 21 5
• Licenses 54 10 470 66 16
• B Certificates 32 5 75 28 7
• Land records 21 26 3160 103 13
• D.certificate 11 6 110 45 3
• K credit card 8 5 1680 24 7
• Tractor papers 5 5 1400 102 13
• Loan papers 3 18 370 75 10
• Passports 3 6 770 455 12
• Cattle Insurance 2 4 1390 23 6
• Crop Insurance 1 2 530 60 8
• Base 534
Conclusions
• In order to incorporate gender based policies
wrt telecom
• => Need to integrate telecom with other
developmental activities (funding)
• => Linkages with NGOs, private sector
• => Move away from voice focus alone
Internet and On-line Computing
• Women studies repeatedly emphasize
exclusion
• Contemporary women are increasingly
becoming user of technological artefacts.
Increasingly strive for competence and
enjoy the power and status that comes with
technological work.
Issues
• Would women’s computing expertise
remain without status while men continue to
monopolise computing jobs with power and
prestige?
• Role of inter-personal communication and
diffusion of developmental issues through
Internet
The Study
• Exploratory
• Internet Cafes in Ahmedabad
• Number of respondents :85
• Differences in numbers
Source of Access to Internet
• Male Female
• At Office 8 8
• At Home 19 21
• Internet Café 25 14
No of times Internet is used per
month
• Male Female (percentages)
• 1-5 8 32
• 5-10 4 10
• 10-15 20 10
• >15 68 46
No of Visits to Internet
Café/month (percentages)
• Male Female
• 1-5 48 78
• 5-10 36 14
• 10-15 7
• >15 16
Reasons for low access
• 53% women face problems in access to Internet compared to 30%
men. Reason for low usage by women
– Occupied by other family members/employees (presumably male)
: 40%
– Perceived complexities in connecting to the net
– Lack of time
• Women find they have less time to learn to navigate on-line systems
• “It is designed for people who have got hours to
spare: in the garage, in the shed or in the attic,
cracking the code”
Convenient Time Slots (At
home)(percentages)
Male Female
• After 10 pm 51 38
• 7-10pm 37 27
• Afternoon hours Predominantly
housewives
Convenient Time Slots (Internet
Cafes)
Male Female
• 4-7pm 28 42
• 7-10pm 40 28
Perceived Usefulness(Percentage)
Male Female
• Makes work easy 78 53
• Gives new/innovative ideas 36 26
• Exposure 53 42
• Updates on current news 60 39
• Entertainment 64 47
• Others Knowledge of competition Saves
time, helps
keep
contact
Monthly Expenditure (Rs)
Male Female
• Below 100 8 50
• 100-200 33 29
• 200-500 29 21
• 500-1000 4
• >1000 25
Non-gender specific logins to
avoid advances of embarrassing
nature
Males Females
• Yes 17 25
• No 83 75
Proportion of Monthly
Expenditure
Male Female
• Below 10% 12 50
• 10-20% 54 29
• 20-40% 13 21
• 40-60
• 60-80 21
• 80-100
Research Issues
• Development related activities primarily targeted at
women. How can Internet be used to strengthen such
initiatives in the social context (role of women, local
language, relevance of content)
• In what ways do men and women use the Internet
differently (perceived usefulness, nature of tasks
etc.,)
• How to structure the tasks/role so that women may
exploit the advantages of Internet
• Thank You