I belong to that generation who have grown up with one
landline telephone connection, just to realise that the same can become ‘just a
set’ to support home internet connection for some, or a “life support” for
senior citizens who love to feel nostalgic by such sets. I have stayed in three major cities in three
parts of India and finally decided to own a telephone number which (much to the
surprise of my older generations) started ‘travelling’ with me to keep me
connected with the world. Yes, we call it ‘roaming’. But the older generation
still loves to call it mobile phone instead of ‘cell phone’ because (as one my
grand-aunt once commented), ‘you need to be mobile while using it’. I gradually
owned a smart phone and the SIM card changed its ‘place of residence’ from my ‘unsmart’ phone to smart phone . I
also witnessed the era when roaming charges got reduced from a (shocking) exorbitant
price to a nominal price which we were happy to afford.
Then came the announcement for mobile
number portability system. One of the
telecommunication service providers define this in the following words “ Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is the
facility for users to switch to any mobile operator in any Licensed Service
Area (LSA) of INDIA, while retaining their existing mobile number . Sim card
and all services on the mobile connection will change and will be provided by
the new operator.”( see http://www.bsnl.in/opencms/bsnl/BSNL/services/mobile/mnp_intro.htm)
And how will the customer avail the services for ‘change of port’? The
telecommunication regulatory authority of India gives a detailed guidelines
regarding this @ http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/file/measuresto%20protectconsumerinterest/Customer_Guide.pdf
.
One of the essential eligibility criteria is owning
government authorised local residential information. This can be either the
voter’s ID card, or the ADHAR card or the PAN card or the Ration Card which may
have the local residential address of the customer. In case the customer has
shifted from his own home, the requirements must be satisfied with the Rent
Agreement, which may show the names of the genuine tenant ( the customer) and
the genuine property owner (the house owner). However, in case the customer has
shifted his jurisdiction from one city to another, he may necessarily need to
show all papers which prove that he has shifted the jurisdiction.
I was fantasising the idea of availing mobile portability system
especially because I shifted from one State to another and I was under the
impression that I can still “own” the number
without paying roaming charges since mobile number portability also
offers for change of geo-location of service area. In short I greedily wanted
to localise my number, which has almost become my identity. I applied for
mobile number portability only to realise a rude shocking truth. It is nothing
but a hypocrisy especially for women who are not ‘single’.
When one enters
a new State he/she can not be expected to
change his/her government authorised identity proofs within one day unless
he/she is a government officer who has been transferred from one post to
another (you may still need to wait for getting your new id card); and if the
person wants to retain the identity proofs because he/she plans to get back to
his/her own home state, then it is only the rent agreement which may support
his/her claim for ‘authentic identity’. Most
of the times, the house owners would prefer to rent out their properties in the
name of the “Karta” (o, common ! forget about the recent judgment which says
even women can also be heads of families. In such situations, Karta always
denotes male heads of families) and not the “Katri”(women heads or spouses) in
case the so called karta wants to be lenient enough to include his wife’s name.
The reason is obvious: our society still can’t accept women as equal to men. As such, if a woman who may or may not be
working (I am excluding women government
servants), and who has travelled with her husband to another State, wishes to avail the ‘digital
magic’ called mobile portability system, she may need to rely upon rent
agreement and needs her husband’s signature (and in some cases the physical
presence as well) for all the formalities, reducing her existence as a mere
presence of the human body without any
identity. Practically, she actually may need to denounce her ‘ownership’ over
the digital identity and phone number that would be allotted to the new
subscriber, i.e., her husband. I really
wonder, then what is the necessity of workplace identity cards, the biometrics
and the (numbness of the) ADHAR number uniqueness if these are not needed for causes such as mobile portability system? Are women
to be considered as fugitive criminals if their existing new workplace identity
cards, unchanged passports or ADHAR cards do not match with the new residential
information ? what may be other unique grounds to deny women the right to avail
mobile portability system when they are otherwise eligible ? It is unfortunate to
note that examples of terrorism or antisocial activities carried on with the
cyber aide had lead to create some policies which do not support the concept of
gender equality always. No matter how much
loving and supporting the husband may be, the rules will always be the rules and the service
provider company would always remain ‘unanswerable’
to the wife or the dependant woman (in case she is the mother or daughter or
sister of the man) even if she is highly qualified professional.
The dirty dark secret behind the glaring concept of mobile portability
system: gender equality and gender empowerment remains an unanswered question as
ever.
Please Note:
Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations
provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2016), “Why mobile number portability services may prove to be an
absolute hypocrisy for women? A dirty
dark secret “published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/ on
02.09.2016
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