6. Conclusion

The marginalization of women in the overall project of e-government and ICT development is symptomatic of the marginalization of the national machinery for women within the institutional arrangements of governance and the lack of political will for using a rights-based approach for women’s empowerment. While the holistic programme of digital expansion has benefited women, greater utilization of e-government services has been stymied by the lack of programmes to address critical issues that prevent women from claiming their citizenship rights.

Key insights about e-government in Sri Lanka, from a gender perspective, are summarised below.

Gender a non issue in the design of eSri Lanka project

The eSri Lanka project was meant to be a holistic, inclusive project that integrated IT to achieve growth, peace and equity. As citizens, women should also benefit from it. However, the project lacked a strategic gender perspective or commitment to gender equality. Consequently, it did not take proactive measures to overcome the systemic disadvantages that women face. The result was a gender-neutral policy, and a missed opportunity for mainstreaming gender issues into a major development programme.

The lack of a gender perspective in the overall project also precluded the collection of sex disaggregated data to assess its outcomes and impact on women. The evaluation studies contracted by ICTA contained minimal sex disaggregation and hardly any gender analysis.

Digital literacy makes headway

The inclusion of IT into the school curriculum had a positive impact on girls, as they have equal access to education and schooling is compulsory up to 16 years. Computer training programmes have contributed to a substantial increase in professional cadres as well as 'craft level personnel'.¹⁰¹ The major thrust for citizen acquisition of ICT skills was through the Nena Sala programme. Other training programmes had also been implemented by ICTA but except for a system of quotas for women participants in a few programmes, information about other facets of gender-responsiveness in training programmes was not available. Although the World Bank stated that the Nena Sala programme had contributed to “mass literacy”, information on its impact on women’s digital literacy was not available. Computer literacy has increased in the country but inequities between age cohorts and geographical locations as well as in educational attainment and English language proficiency exist. More and more people are using devices such as mobile phones, smart phones or tablets to access the Internet. Although women may own or have access to mobile devices, little attention has been paid to information literacy.

Local language initiatives such as the availability of Sinhala and Tamil web and mobile platforms along with keyboard layouts is a notable achievement in increasing digital literacy and extending access to the vast majority of citizens.

E-Government services expand but women’s critical needs still to be addressed

Several core projects such as e-Pension, e-Population Register, digitalization of birth, marriage and death certificates, and e-Revenue License have benefitted all citizens by improving the delivery of government services. One of the critical issues facing women is gender-based violence and administrative procedures that discriminate against women. The three government agencies that comprise the national machinery for women are still not fully integrated in the re-engineering programme, as the computerization of back end processes have not been completed. Information on these critical issues is not disseminated on the websites.

Legal framework needs to be revisited

Privacy, security, freedom of expression, and the right to receive and impart information are human rights, which are also women’s rights offline and online. The Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and non-discrimination, but not the right to receive information and the right to privacy. The issue of online violence against women in all its ramifications still has had no comprehensive legal response. Particularly since the launch of the 2002 eSri Lanka project, several laws have been enacted to facilitate e-government and make computer crimes (illegal online activities) an offence, but in the absence of the guarantee of basic digital rights, women’s participation in e-government will be less than optimal.