Biblioteca Complutense

"Role of Library and Information Centers in Rural Women Empowerment in India"
by Ms. Keerti Bala Jain, Prof. Sudhir Kumar, Dr. Leena Shah and Dr. Anil Kumar Jain

Indian society is socio-economically male dominated. Women are discriminated and marginalised in socio-economic and political participation, opportunities, access to education, nutrition, reproductive healthcare, etc. especially in the rural area where 71.35% of the Indian population lives. The male/female ratio is 1000/933.

The women literacy rate in rural areas is only 46.1% compared to 64.8% national rate. This paper studies empowering women by developing their abilities, skills and capacity to face various issues, give voice to their concerns, and the necessities of providing education, information and knowledge.

17 states out of 35 states and union-territories had passed the Public Libraries Act in India. This paper argues the need for a mix of public libraries and e-governance projects establishing community library and information centers (CLICs). CLICs will be able to provide need based information on health, nutrition, education, rural resources management, livelihood, agriculture, markets, etc relevant to rural communities. The information on different development programmes of government and other agencies provided by CLICs could  be of much benefit in order to make Indian rural women empowered. This could become a model for many countries with similar geo-political conditions.