New Straits Times

Wed.25 August 2004

Muslim woman blazes e-Literacy trail.

Malappuram (India)Tues. - A 21-year-old Muslim woman is proving to be a trailblazer in more ways than one as she takes part in an ambitious drive to bring the Internet to a conservative part of Southern India.

Daughter of an agricultural worker in the  overwhelmingly Muslim district of Malappuram in the palm-fringed coastal state of Kerala, Jaseela's normal destiny would have been to marry young and start a family.

Indeed, she graduated from university in Economics and borrowed 250,000 rupees( RM 20479) from  a bank to set up an e-learning centre and help bring about a technology revolution in her community.

" By my age, most girls are married but my father supported me when I wanted to start the business, " said Jaseela, the fifth of seven children.

"Since I opened the centre I've trained more than 300 people." It's a big change for the region and Jaseela, who is popularly known by one name, is helping propel it with her business called , Aykshaya ( Eternal). She bought six computers and rented a room in Malappuram to teach villagers the basics of operating a computer.

Now the government has declared Malappuram , which has a population of three million, e-literate.

It says at least one member from each of the district's 650,000 households is computer-literate.

" This is the first district in India to be declared e-literate," said Aruna Sundaram , the top technology bureaucrat in Kerala, which already is known as India's most literate state with 89 percent of it's population able to read and write.

"All this in a Muslim-dominated district which is traditional and conservative. Now of the total people trained 50 percent are women," said IT secretary, Sundaram.

" The region had no access to computers earlier," said Sundaram. " Access, skills and content had to build from scratch.". So far Jaseela's business is doing well.

"The government paid me (a subsidy of ) 100 000 rupees and I hope to make my business profitable soon when more people do their business via the Internet," said Jaseela, one of the few women in the village who does not wear an all-enveloping burqa.

"I've already earned 50 000 rupees. "Government authorities said tribespeople, fishermen , children and agricultural workers are lining up at 637 Aykshaya centres to learn to operate computers and get on the net.-AFP

Archived from New Straits Times -Wed, August 2004