Vol. 2, Issue 4, Part L (2016)

Abstract
Gender equality means, “That all human beings are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by strict gender roles; that the different behaviour, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally considered, valued and favoured”. Gender equality is fully needed for equal representation and participation of both men and women in the economy, decision making as well as in social, cultural and civil life. The UN points out that, empowering women is an indispensable tool for achieving development and reducing poverty. The paper will discuss the string of measures, initiatives and projects to improve the ICT infrastructure. The paper will examine the role of e-governance in attaining gender equality through the analysis of Akshaya e-centres of Kerala. Further paper will also throw a light on how the e-governance project of Kerala helped in achieving women empowerment. Finally the paper also will try to study the problems faced by women as the targeted group for the present study. This paper is based on both primary secondary data. For achieving the objectives, e-governance project of Kerala namely, Akshaya e-centres have been selected. That is, to be specified, the study has been carried out from 26 Akshaya e-centres of Payyannur and Thalassery taluks of Kannur district of Kerala. The data have been collected from sample respondents such as beneficiaries (127), staffs (78) and entrepreneurs (26). A range of government official websites and other related books, articles and journals are also used for the study.