Researchers are Beginning to Study the Effects of Mobile Phones on the Lives of Women in India

In a story published on Tuesday in the New York Times, author Nilanjana S. Roy writes about the multiple ways that mobile phones are impacting women’s lives across India–a place where, according to the Times, 700 million people have mobile phones. She also discusses some of the barriers to access to mobile phones for many women in India.

In India, researchers are just beginning to study the effects that the explosive growth in the mobile phone market has had on women’s lives.

For women like Ms. Gupta, access to a mobile phone can break the pattern of marital isolation. At the Barefoot College, a school in the northwestern state of Rajasthan that provides professional training for rural women, the mobile phone allows even illiterate entrepreneurs to compete in the marketplace.

In the state of Gujarat, the mobile phone is central to an innovative scheme that allows rural health care workers to compile information about pregnant women and then text message reminders for checkups and vaccinations.

Read the full story here.