Mumbai: “I wanted to bring some of my blouses to show you,” Manisha Badekar says, laughing, “but customers have just now taken the last few ones I had.” The 28-year-old has a shop in Karad, the commercial hub closest to Supane, her village in Satara, Maharashtra. “Blouses, all different types, and Anarkalis tend to be the most asked-for items.” She shows us her sewing machine and work table, where a bright flash of parrot green catches the eye: it’s a saree blouse she has been designing that is almost ready.
Ms. Badekar has never been to a design school; she is well-versed in basic tailoring, but all her advanced design learning has been via a smartphone, which she uses to look up designs and then re-create them. She is the first in her family, and among the women in Supane from her generation, the first to learn smartphone and handheld Internet use. “I cannot tell you how beneficial it has been,” she says. “The other day, a customer asked me for a very high-fashion blouse design and I had no idea how to execute it. I found designs on the Internet that really helped. It gives you so much information. I think everybody should learn how to use the Internet. A person cannot do anything without the Internet.”
Not just work
It isn’t all work though. She got her own smartphone just three months back, and has grown to enjoy using it. “ Din bhar padi rehti hoon phone pe [I spend all day on the phone],” she confesses.
Once she learnt how to use WhatsApp, she got a 4G Internet pack for her phone and now chats at length with friends aside from general browsing. Phone signal is patchy in her home, so she often has to step outdoors to browse or call. For recharges, there are just three shops in Supane that stock them, so if they’re out, she gets a friend in Karad to buy her one.
Getting hooked
Ms. Badekar has taught her niece, Hema Waydande, an 18-year-old studying Commerce in Class XII at Malharpe, how to use the phone and the Internet. Ms. Waydande says she has watched two of her favourite films on her smartphone — “entire films?” we ask, to which she says, “of course” — Heropanti and Gabbar , browses the Internet, and “sees status messages on WhatsApp.”
She also uses her phone to study, she hastily reassures us; the Board exams are on, and yes, many of her classmates have smartphones too, though she is not sure of the exact number. For all of them, smartphones have opened up many new avenues for entertainment and learning.
Monali Shinde, 28, has also started using a smartphone. She’d used an older-generation phone before — “which you pick up, make calls, and keep back down” — like many of her friends and neighbours, but was introduced to the newer technology when her husband bought one. Her husband is in the Army, posted in Jammu. “I thought it would be nice to have a smartphone since I’m alone,” she says.
Keeping in touch
For Ms. Shinde, a smartphone is a connection to the outside world, and a way for her to be connected to other people, to be a more engaging teacher, and to have gainful means of occupying herself. “It gives me useful things to do,” she says.
She is an Arts graduate from Karad, and has always been interested in design, and has learnt blouse cutting, paper cutting, mehendi design, and clothes design, she says. “I used my husband’s smartphone sometimes, when he bought one, and I did ask him to get me one.” Though she still doesn’t have a smartphone, she uses one belonging to Asha Kamle, a well-respected woman in the village who has taught many women how to use smartphones (see box, Learning from big sister ). “I used to be so excited, every evening, when I used to get free, for half an hour or an hour, I used to come sit with Tai and learn,” Ms. Shinde says. She shows us her designs in her living room, a set of crocheted home décor items, including a small decorative swing and a paper holder, as well as hand-knit and crocheted toys, all of which, along with women’s garments, she has begun to make and sell. Aside from giving her home business ideas, she wants to be able to use the Internet to teach her children. “It is a really useful way for them to learn, with pictures, and videos,” she says.
New horizons
The adoption of smartphones by the women of Supane has been swift, but there are still several drawbacks. Many of the women, like Ms. Shinde, do not own one, and are still using ‘ Tai ’s phone.’
Pallavi Kamble, 33, moved to Supane after her marriage, and is a homemaker. Her husband is a daily wage worker, and they have two children, aged 15 and 13. For her, the smartphone is a useful tool for learning, for her children, and also to learn how to cook food they like. “My children hate eating vegetables. I made methi parathas for them after learning the recipe online and they said they loved it.”
Her children, Ms. Kamble says, know all about the Internet and she doesn’t need to teach them. Her husband doesn’t have a smartphone himself. “He says the Internet is as bad as it is good,” she says. Her brother has a smartphone, but doesn’t let her use it. She talks about compromising photographs and videos; the threat to women’s privacy and personal life. She, like the others, wants cheaper smartphones, something in the ₹2,500 to ₹3,000 range.
“Even now, there is so much more we have to learn,” Ms. Kamble says. “We are just barely learning how to use the Internet. Imagine what more we could do with it.”
Disclosure: The Hindu visited Supane on invitation from Google India, which also bore expenses for the trip.
