MAINSTREAMING WOMEN AND ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
Gender bias had been an old phenomena throughout the world. Women have always taken a back seat in economic, political and social structure in any society across the globe and this all because of the socialization and the patriarchal society. Though half the population of the world constitutes of women & girls but their contribution in most of areas are not significant. The biggest challenge for any government is the empowerment of women to bring them and contribute in the mainstream activities. Today in 21st century there is no doubt that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) helps every one in every possible field.Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a significant and integral part of our life. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be defined as a diverse set of electronic technologies and technological tools and resources used to communicate, create, store, disseminate and manage information. Information Communication Technology such as videos, televisions, multimedia and computer software which combines text, sound, and colorful moving images can be used to provide challenging and authentic content that will engage the learning process Women play an important role in various sectors such as economic, political, social, sports, educational, enterprising etc. The objective of the present paper is to examine the relationship between the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) and women empowerment and discusses the main challenges and impediments faced by women, recommends strategies to address those challenges and ways to cultivate the conditions leading to women's empowerment. This conceptual paper is based on secondary information collected from different sources such as books, journal articles, newspapers,reports of various government organization, nongovernmental organizations and soon.