Mobile phones to the rescue

With over 70 million subscribers and a tele-density of over 110 per cent, there is an opportunity for using mobile phones to effectively bring about social and behavioural change to overcome basic challenges in Tamil Nadu such as sanitation.

This was stated by representatives of UNICEF and non-governmental organisation Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF).

At a day-long consultation meeting on Friday, involving government agencies, service sector organisations and other stakeholders, UNICEF and DEF representatives highlighted how ICT solutions were being used, especially in the northern states, to aid grassroot-level developmental work.

While Tamil Nadu stands ahead of other States in terms of most health indicators, one area of intervention the participants dwelt upon was sanitation.

G. Lakshmipathy, additional director, department of rural development and panchayat raj, pointed out that of the 95 lakh rural households in the State, 52 lakh homes did not have toilets and over 13 lakh homes had defunct toilets.

He questioned the stakeholders if mobile phones could be used to bring about an attitudinal change towards sanitation among the rural population.

Osama Manzar, founder-director, DEF, said even very affordable feature phones that cost less than Rs.1,000 could be used as an effective tool. In Jharkhand, such phones were being used by health workers for maternal health programmes.

Though the challenge in Tamil Nadu was different, he added that it would be worth the effort to try and use the mobile for improving sanitation habits.

Madanmohan Rao, research advisor at Asian Media Foundation and Communication Centre, pondered beyond the mobile phone statistics, which were much better in Tamil Nadu when compared to other States.

He said for some of the health and other basic schemes to succeed, the key would be in finding out who had ‘ownership’ of the household mobile, whether the male head of the family or the women.

Some of the participants noted that unlike in northern states, in Tamil Nadu, the women were more independent and operated their mobile phones themselves.