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 IT Education
Initiatives among Mumbai Muslims
The marginalization of the Muslim minority from the mainstream development is well known. As IT and its role in growth and globalization are established, this may not only further marginalize Muslims from the national mainstream but also threaten their place in world development.
The role of new technologies and their potential to contribute to economic growth and human development has been debated at various national and international forums. Speaking of equity and social transformation, the marginalization of the Muslim minority from the mainstream development is well known. As IT and its role in growth and globalization are established, this may not only further marginalize Muslims from the national mainstream but also threaten their place in world development.
Like the ‘digital divide’, the North-South divide has been widely discussed in academic circles. In recent times, the divide within a society, especially across geographic location (rural/urban), class, and gender have received inordinate media and academic attention. A society is far more heterogeneous and characterized by divides besides these three. In India, other social structural dimensions worth a mention are caste, ethnicity, religion, language and state. These digital divides deserve our attention and await documentation. Another lacuna in the IT and development literature is the lack of focus on computer access and learning in urban areas. It is assumed that things are well there with the result attention directed to making IT available to villagers. This is not to say that IT development in rural areas is unimportant – it is to illustrate that the urban centres warrant scrutiny as well. Studies document government initiatives – state and centre – and NGOs thrust in IT education; what is left undocumented are the community cum government initiatives.
Ethnic groups within the Muslim community have responded to modern technology in diverse ways. The religious leadership of the Daudi Bohra has harnessed information and communication technologies to serve traditional purposes and set itself as a role model for embracing ICT for its people. The ownership of personal computers among the rich of this sect is 14.5% on par with Japan. The Memons on the other hand do not have a single computer in their jamatkhana. Secondly, in the bustling city of Mumbai, Muslim sects such as the Aga Khanis, Ishana Asharis, the Bohras, Memons, Konkani, etc, populate the area from Crawford Market to Byculla Station. This heterogeneity is compounded by diversity in education, class and language. In this stretch of seven bus stops there are no world-class computer training institutions such as APTECH, NIIT, or SSI.
The assumption that all is well in urban centres was challenged through a survey of women trainees enrolled for a “Women’s Special” basic course at a world class IT educational institution. Results from Mumbai city showed that only 3% were Muslim women. Given this state of affairs, the role of other players, in this field, if any, needs to be brought to light. The paper highlights some community and government cum community IT education initiatives addressed to the Muslims and describes the nature of the beneficiaries. Besides, it critically reviews these initiatives, share some observations and provide policy recommendations. For this purpose the senior author surveyed the geographical locality mentioned above and spent approximately twenty-two hours at various places where education was imparted. She collected pamphlets, brochures and spoke to the centre heads. In addition, information about the current batch of the beneficiaries was gathered from the application forms to provide a demographic profile of the beneficiaries. This entire activity has been described in three sections – the first describes the initiatives; the second discusses the nature of the beneficiaries and the third section offers critique and makes policy recommendations.
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