Author(s): Pratibha Singh, Poonam Tewari and Deepika Verma

Abstract:
ICTs play an important role in disseminating information, acquiring knowledge, skills and changing attitude of rural communities. In spite of this, most of the farming related technologies do not reach female farmers due to lack of awareness and use of ICTs. Female farmers need to be empowered to use information communication technologies to update themselves with latest technologies. Present study was conducted to assess the awareness and use of ICTs by rural women of Uttarakhand. Study shows that among various ICTs, television and mobile was available with maximum number of households. Regarding access to various ICTs, half of the respondents had complete access to television and 43.00 per cent had complete access to mobile. Rural women were using television mainly for entertainment. Only a few rural women were using it for education, agriculture and health purpose. Mobile was mainly used for call purpose. A few respondents also used it for entertainment and education purpose. Almost all rural women were aware of calling facility in mobile whereas 61.00 per cent respondents were aware of SMS facilities. Regarding use 82.00 per cent respondents were using mobile for calling, and only 24.00 per cent respondents were using SMS.