New Media, Development and Globalization: Making Connections in the Global South by Don Slater

Author:Don Slater [Slater, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2014-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Maneeksha

‘America’ was an extreme case, so let's supplement it with a more qualified case, from the same ictPR project in Chennai, involving a much more informed and sophisticated development theorist: Maneeksha. Maneeksha was an illiterate single mother whose husband had left her shortly after the birth of their now 10-year-old daughter; she was therefore both extremely poor and of the lowest social status, employed in coolie labour on the road or in the field. Already a long-time member of the SHG that had possession of the TANUVAS equipment in her area, Maneeksha theorized ICTs and development in several opposed directions. Firstly, as with so many parents encountered in fieldwork, Maneeksha understood ICTs as emblematic of a future that was not for her but for her daughter. The inevitability of that ICT-driven future (whatever that meant) was hammered home to her from all sides (not least via her daughter), including word of mouth from contacts in various cities, glimpses of circulating media such as film and TV, advertisements for computer literacy courses that were appearing on every wall, school and now UNESCO and her own SHG. Maneeksha simply knew that her ICT involvement was the best thing she could do for her daughter. The immediate impact of this was to add a heavy burden on Maneeksha as a development theorist and practitioner (which was integral to her sense of herself as a responsible mother) to theorize new social processes and act upon them, at great cost, on her daughter's behalf.

Maneeksha was already devoting heroic, eye-watering proportions of her minute income to keep her daughter in a decent school and to buy some private tuition (Rs30 a month on private tuition for her daughter, plus the cost of transport and school meals), and she went to great lengths to involve herself and her daughter in the UNESCO ICT centre as soon as the possibility arose. In talking about her hopes for her daughter she said:

M: I would like her to become an office worker. But I don't know. She is studying well. I don't want her to work in the hot sun. She should work in a cool place. Working in the hot sun and getting low pay is horrible.

R: How are you going to educate your daughter?

M: I can educate my daughter up to SSLC [Secondary School Leaving Certificate] in Varakalpattu. After that I have to send her to Cuddalore or Nellikuppam. Government is giving free bus pass. I have to spend little more. I will educate her. It is the only aim of my life.

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