Photo credit: Arian Zwegers.
What’s a girl got to do with a cell phone?
To most of the world, that might sound like a weird question. But not if you know what happened in one village and then spread rapidly to others in the Indian state of Gujarat.
The events unfolded in the same district that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails from, in the same state that is known for entrepreneurship and industrialization; in the same country where a ravenous appetite for mobile phones has spurred a US$4 smartphone.
That’s where a bunch of under-18 girls and single women have just been told they have no business using cell phones and, thereby, the internet.
Why? Because some villagers decided that mobile phones distract girls from studies, are a waste of money, and get them into all sorts of bad situations, reports NDTV.
Does the ban apply to unmarried, under-18 boys too? After all, they too may be distracted from studies and get into all sorts of trouble. Nopes.
Did some kind of study on the harmful effects of cell phones on girls prompt the ban? Nopes.
So what was the provocation?
Photo credit: Ian D. Keating
Many in north Gujarat apparently think girls using cell phones is as much of a nuisance as alcohol consumption by men.
It started in Suraj, a village of Mehsana district.
Village elders of the Vankar community decided to impose a fine of US$31 on girls for using or possessing a mobile phone. That’s not all. They also decided to reward tattletales – read informers – with US$3, the Hindustan Times reported.
“Why do girls need cell phones? Internet is a waste of time and money for a middle-class community like us. Girls should better utilize their time for study and other work,” village head Devshi Vankar was quoted as saying by the paper.
More villages and communities
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