2. There has been a tremendous increase of infection in women between the ages of 15 - 24.

3. In the last ten years 4.3 million children have died from AIDS.

4. Six hundred thousand (600,000) infants have acquired the disease through mother to newborn transmission.

5. Every 14 seconds another child becomes an orphan due to AIDS-related deaths.Basic health care, family planning and obstetric services are essential for women yet they remain unavailable to millions. In many developing countries health clinics do not provide support to women neither for birth control nor for obstetrics. According to the Global Health Council, “the health of families and communities are tied to the health of women – the illness or death of a woman has serious and far-reaching consequences for the health of her children, family and community.” Yet every 100 seconds, a woman dies in pregnancy or during childbirth. The average Indian woman is 100 times more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth than is a woman in the developed countries. About 15 percent of pregnant women in India develop life-threatening complications (Mahbub ul Haq Development Centre, 2000).<br />Although maternal mortality in India is declining, it remains high and is far from satisfaction. Estimated between 400 at 407 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, is the result from infection, hemorrhage, obstructed labor, abortion, and anemia (Department of Family Welfare Ministry of Health and family welfare Govt. of India, 2003). Lack of appropriate care during pregnancy and childbirth, especially the inadequacy of services for detecting and managing complications, explains most maternal deaths.<br />Access and attitudes towards antenatal care to women are negative because pregnancy in many developing countries is not generally considered a condition that requires special treatment. Pregnant women receive little (if any) additional food and often no medical attention, even when complications arise. In rural areas of many developing countries, over 80 percent of deliveries occur at home, assisted by older household women and traditional birth attendants.<br />The unhygienic conditions in which rural deliveries usually occur, often leads to infection in mothers and newborns.<br />Very little progress has been made in promoting gender equality and empowerment of women. Regions with high maternal death rates are characterized by marginalization of women. Gender inequality is propagated by a lack of access to education (reflected in low literacy rates) and thus an absence of women in positions that can set opinion or policy.<br />There is also not much confidence in public health care providers due to long waiting times, restricted hours of operation, unavailability of drugs and the attitude of the practitioners themselves, who feel they are being under utilized (United Nations Development program, World Bank & World Health Organization, 1995).<br />Education is the way to empowerment and opportunity. Education can open the doors to life-saving information related to health issues for these women in need. Education is the conditio sine qua non to poverty alleviation. Lack of information and knowledge keep people in poverty. The female disadvantage in these developing countries is evident in the lack of education.<br />Government Impact on Women’s Health<br />Biased policies prevent health care from being provided in a format and with the adequate services that women need. In directing policies, it is important to take into account the specific needs of women to insure that they can have equitable and affordable access to information and services.<br />There is insufficient investment in the health sector by governments in the developing countries. (Shaikh, 2007). “More often than not, they [developing countries] are experiencing the consequences of political corruption, economic mismanagement, civil wars, tremendous poverty, and the complicated inheritance that colonizing nations have left behind” (Dutta, 2009). <br />Studies have tried to determine the pattern of utilization of health care services at both the community and health care facility level. Further studies have also investigated what the major factors are in shaping the health information seeking behavior. The outcome of these studies should be to have an impact and to really improve coordination and planning for future programs. In this way the studies could assist in improving the effectiveness of health care in the developing countries. To achieve an educated, healthy population, access to information, such as news, education, and health care, is crucial. <br />Literature reviewed showed a similar pattern across a range of developing countries around the world. For example lack of access to health care due to high cost is perhaps the most common deterrent to optimal health care seeking. Health beliefs are major obstacles to health care seeking in addition to the woman ability to recognize the urgency of diseases symptoms. Information on the health seeking behavior of women in developing countries would help the policy makers set strategies to decrease the mortality rate due to common illnesses and diseases associated with women. But very few studies have actually been reported at that level. Most studies are difficult to access, because they are unpublished or published in obscure journals.<br />Women in Developing Countries and Digital Networking<br />The link between information, communication, and economic growth is well known. Telecommunications and information technology are slowly making their way into rural areas of developing countries. The cost of connectivity is the major impediment to the adoption of ICTs in developing countries. The question is will these women actually be able to access such technology when it’s available? If so, how will this affect the lives of these women?<br />Electronic networking is a powerful and rapid way to communicate and exchange information. The potential of information and communication technologies still has not been harnessed systematically to bring about important improvements in the health of populations, particularly among those who are poor and isolated in developing countries. <br />Bakar (2009) noted the disparity between urban and rural groups when it comes to the use of the Internet. The urban group results to be digital/information rich and the rural digital/information poor. Libraries play an important role in dispensing information for them. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are preferred media while Internet makes the bottom of the list of importance. Magazines are the principle source of health information. Those magazines are not professional journals but popular magazines with a health section. This choice is also dictated by the financial constraints. Popular magazines are the ones they can afford to buy.<br />The potential of advances in information and communication technologies to disseminate information and the availability of access to technology in developing countries needs to be further studied. These studies should include the issues of accuracy and the relevance of content. It is rare for a woman in a developing country to have access to the Internet, even in urban areas. However when they do have access to the Internet they often don’t have the adequate skills to access information. <br />Interestingly a study of young uneducated urbanities use of the Internet in Ghana found that regardless of ethnicity, gender, or school status, adolescent urban dwellers in Ghana consistently access the Internet for health information.<br />It is well known that most up-to-date information is available electronically thus these findings need to be further evaluated to understand how the use of the Internet can be improved. <br />In Africa also, which has a population of 700 million, less than one million people had access to the Internet in 1998, and of this number 80% were in South Africa. The financial barriers to Internet access are considerable. Even if the woman in the village has access to the Internet, she will not necessarily be able to use the information to improve her health because trying to get information from the Internet can be very challenging. There are barriers of literacy and language. Language is a common barrier, since most training packages, software, and electronic conferences and journals are in English. Many Internet postings are in English. And when these are not present assessment of the quality of the sites is one of the first obstacles they encounter. Despite retrieving accurate information, the woman in the village still has to decide if the information is relevant to her situation. There is a need of good information in the right quantity and in the most appropriate format. <br />Momodu for example observed that lack of information in the right quantity and format is the cause for 70% rural dwellers in Nigeria living in extreme poverty (2002). But lack of information means poor health and high mortality rate. <br />Information professionals must find new ways of helping illiterate people. Help them to “sort out the web” and help them distinguish reliable/trustable health information, and to guide people to reputable medical sources.<br />Unless specific measures are taken the information gap between developed and developing countries will widen. Rural women in particular will be marginalized and left behind.<br />Open access information is very important when talking about accessibility of information, which is a very different matter from availability of information. The cost of journal subscriptions would be unaffordable for those developing countries. One of the major factors brought by Web 2.0 is that information is not limited or controlled by private interests as much as it was before. Freed of publishing barriers, information can be dispensed on the Internet via blogs, wikis, etc. The futures such as RSS feeds can alert on the latest health issues. Surely there is a need of coordinating and reviewing the information, but this is another issue. <br />Web 2.0 would be extremely useful in dispensing health information in developing countries. Information professionals could come in the zone of intervention by bridging the gap between information and users. Information professionals need to learn how to use these tools because they will be responsible for dispensing appropriate websites, wikis, YouTubes videos, etc., for the delivery of relevant information.<br />The role of Libraries <br />Librarians advocate the right to access and share information. Extension workers and rural libraries in developing countries are considered good channels for finding good-quality information, but libraries are mostly limited to those who are literate, and extension workers are sporadically present in rural villages. Libraries where present in rural areas should be strategically located, for example near a market would be a good location. Access hours should be compatible with the women's busy daily schedule.<br />Most of the libraries we build in developing countries do not reflect the information needs of the specific communities, rather they are products of the Western model of librarianship. Policy makers in these developing countries do not invest in building libraries in every rural community, although having a library does not necessarily mean the resources are accessible. Most of the inhabitants of rural communities are illiterate, thus the use of library resources is limited. Moreover much information is delivered in English, which can constitute a barrier to accessing information. This creates the “zone of intervention” where the help of the librarian is required. quot;
Between objective knowledge structures and the individual's subjective knowledge structure exists the intermediary's zone of intervention.quot;
(Talja, 1997) <br />“As professionals in the field, we must be able to recognize how to handle varying degrees of intervention zones and perhaps shave off some of the load that comes with the perception of a user having too much or to little information.” <br />The model [Kahlthau] does indeed provide a framework for diagnosing learning dilemmas and works with a dynamic array of feelings, cognitions, and actions (search behaviors and patterns)” (Todd, 2010). Information content and format should be tailored to reflect the needs of that particular group of users.<br />Library and information specialists can play a key role in improving user access to information. Consideration should be given to the oral tradition as studies have demonstrated it is the preferred method of sharing and transmitting information. Progress is possible if timely and relevant information is available to people. Information has to be offered in a manner that is accessible to those that face language barriers or illiteracy. On the web or on printed-paper, information professionals can translate, and convert the information in a different format so relevant content is available to the community. <br />In rural areas of developing countries, libraries could become important hubs where resources are available and accessible. Women should participate in designing these library services. The need for privacy in health issues is very important to them. <br />Through the library people will be able to take control of their lives and fulfill their potentials by acquiring information and knowledge. Libraries must be better equipped and librarians must also work with the population to better cater to their needs. Alemna (1995) reports studies done in Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya that reveal information needs in rural areas generally include information related to agricultural skills, marketing of produce, and basic health information. Alemna suggested that to respond to these needs does not necessarily require databases or advanced technologies. One other obstacle is that skilled information professionals are not willing to work in rural areas of developing countries because of the scarcity of resources and lack of basic human comforts. Rural libraries have to reinvent themselves and the information needs of rural areas communities must be understood to be able to develop libraries that will nurture literacy and offer sustainable resources. The library must find ways to communicate useful information to its community through non-traditional avenues. Alemna (1995) argues that the primary concerns of African librarians as well as donors are literacy and the number of books in libraries. African needs and the way Africans learn are different from the West. Accessibility to information can be achieved by adapting to their traditional forms of transmitting information, such as stories, drama, poetry, and songs. Instead of donating books the developed countries should donate basic technology such as radio and audio-visual equipment, which would sustain their “orality”.<br />Conclusion<br />This paper observed while a weak economy has a profound effect on the availability and accessibility of resources, the information and communication disparities is not defined as much by the economic status of a geographic location as it is by an individual user’s educational background. Globally, women are impoverished severely in developing countries. There have been some international attempts toward bridging the gender gap, but there is still a long way to go before women can take control of their own lives. To combat social isolation, both from people and from information, rural life in developing countries has to be improved: road infrastructure, electricity and phones. It has been suggested that the raising of awareness, training programs, and classes should be put into place to provide these women with useful information and to help them gain knowledge. Print sources should be accompanied with oral forms, such as group discussions, workshops, face-to-face interaction, storytelling, as well as poetry and drama.<br />By understanding the information behavior of rural women in developing countries, the government, the national library association, as well as NGOs would be able to develop better ways to meet these rural women’s needs.<br />Projects to gather information should be organized by governments, NGOs and libraries. Developing viable policies that promote equity in access to and use of information should not be delayed any longer. 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