'Cell phone helped Mayawati win UP polls'
Agencies Posted: May 24, 2010 at 1647 hrs
New Delhi The ubiquitous nature of the communications device, and its
presence in the poorest of households has helped Dalit leader Mayawati
surge to the forefront of Indian politics, researchers claim and back
it up with data.
Mobile phones are big business in India, and according to two
Australian researchers evidence has emerged that this instrument
played a very key role in helping the Bahujan Samaj Party and its
Dalit leader Mayawati achieve a resounding electoral victory in the
country's biggest state – Uttar Pradesh – in 2007.
In the three years since, Mayawati has entrenched herself as a
powerful player in national politics, according to Australian
researchers Robin Jeffrey and Assa Doron, who are exploring how
India's mobile phone boom has helped parties representing the bottom
rung of the caste system do well at the ballot box.
Check out the facts:
The number of mobile subscribers has surged from just 1.2 million in
1999 to almost 600 million.
About 20 million new subscribers are being added every month, making
India the world''s fastest growing phones market.
In 1987 there were only 0.3 phones for every 100 Indians, now there are 51.
Fierce competition between telephone companies has driven down the
prices of handsets and calls and allowed millions of poor families
access to a phone for the first time. Call tariffs dipped below one
cent per minute in the past year, analysts say.
The growth in mobile phone use has caught authorities by surprise. A
30-year numbering plan drawn up in 2003 is already outdated and
analysts say the number of digits in all Indian mobile phone numbers
will soon have to be increased from 10 to 11. Subscribers have doubled
since August 2008 and there are now 10 times more mobiles in India
than fixed lines.
Analysts say mobile phones have affected every strata of Indian
society like few tools ever have. Advertisers have portrayed the
mobile phone as a household essential for the poor - alongside
shelter, food and clothing.
Studies have shown how mobiles have helped poor Indian farmers to
avert losses and improve yields.
With buyers just a phone call away, they can adjust their production
to suit demand; easily accessible weather forecasts help with crop
planning.
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