Open Forum
New Delhi, 28 April
2021
Digital Divide
DELETING INEQUALITY VITAL
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Rural poverty in
India has been manifest in various studies, specially Oxfam, and the widening
income disparity, not just between the rich and poor but also between the urban
and rural sections, between those working in the formal and informal sectors, between
those working in the industrial sector and in agriculture has become sharper. If
inequality is found to widen, how can we expect that digital divide can be
breached in the near future?
While India can boast
of having the second-largest pool of internet users, about 600 million,
comprising over 12% of all users globally, yet half its population lacks
internet access, and even if they can get online, only 20% of Indians know how
to use digital services. Spatial divide is vast with the internet density in
rural areas, with around 65 per cent of population living, being still below 25
per cent in comparison to the internet density in urban areas (of around 90 per
cent).
In this backdrop digital
technology, particularly during the pandemic is expected to play a key role in
improving access to the education system and create affordable and effective
training programmes at a larger scale. Online education has skyrocketed
globally, as also in India. But majority of the children actually end up not
having access to the internet. And it’s obvious to trigger a hue and cry.
Oxfam in its status
report last September on government and private schools during the pandemic
noted that ‘digital education requires a stable internet connection along with
adequate data. However, these two preconditions constitute the biggest
hindrances in accessing digital education. For over half the parents, internet
speed and signal is an issue while for a third, data is too expensive. This is
followed by more fundamental challenges of not having the right device,
internet connection or being unable to navigate the software.’
Its survey found that
despite the sample consisting of parents belonging predominantly to urban areas
and being digitally literate, 82% still faced challenges in supporting their
children to access digital education.’ Worse, there have been multiple media
reports of children from economically weaker sections enrolled under Section 12
(i) c of the RTE Act struggling to access digital education during this time.
This, said Oxfam, highlights the shortfalls of depending sorely on digital
mediums for education delivery and the need to look at alternative mediums that
are more inclusive and provide universal access.
Indeed, the canvas
must be wider. However, academics, experts among others unfortunately seem to
get preoccupied with the issue of lack of academic freedom. Instead, there is
need to focus on the grim reality that large number of students from poor
families, backward castes, adivasis, etc in rural areas are not getting the
benefit of digital India.
Jadavpur University Vice
Chancellor and historian Prof. Suranjan Das’s soliciting contribution from
members of the extended university to donate generously for a greater cause is
a pointer to prevailing situation. The VC said in his appeal that the
university was able to provide 250 smart phones to needy students and data recharging
to 750 students. However, there are some solutions to help bridge connectivity
gaps and address high data costs by offering non-streaming option for school
education content and also promoting on-demand learning platform.
India’s problems
cannot be understood if seen through the lens in metropolitan cities of Delhi,
Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata. The political class needs to be reminded that the
country lives in villages and, as such, rural infrastructure development is
critical particularly in these times.
The appalling reality
needs to be highlighted constantly and not what many an expert would claim is
the picture. In a recent article in a national daily, the writer contended that
the digital revolution is already as advanced in emerging economies than
developed ones. Further, it was stated that among the top 30 nations by revenue
from digital services as a share of GDP, more than half are in the emerging
world.
While digital
technologies have, no doubt, been adopted, considering the dimension of the
country and the huge population, this does not stand any comparison. Moreover,
if per capita use of digitisation is mapped, it would be found that India is no
match even for countries such as Brazil, Argentina, South Africa not to speak
of China.
This is not to say
that innovative technologies are not being inducted in the private sector,
specially in the IT and related areas. But even in these areas, additional emphasis
or for that matter funds for R&D have unfortunately been missing in the
Indian context. Therefore, experts who suggest that digitisation has been
increasing must map micro and small industries as also cottage industries and decipher
what percentage of such industries are actually digitised.
At the same time, it
cannot be denied that digitisation is far better compared to a decade back. But
while it may have entered the lives of say even low middle income sections, it
hasn’t truly percolated down further below. If the benefits have to be reaped
by the lowest levels and the backward districts of the country, a different
strategy and plan of action needs to be adopted by the government.
If only policy makers
delve deeper into the problems affecting the rural economy, a better
understanding of the overall socio-economic situation would have been in place.
Investments are very much necessary in gearing up digital technology
infrastructure in rural and semi-urban areas with data storage, data centres
and content housing infrastructure being scaled up to connect people. Not just
the government but the private sector too needs to chip in to try to bridge the
digital divide. The question of course would be whether India has the money to
spread the benefits of digital revolution to the villages.
Meanwhile, concerns
of ‘digital colonialism’ have been raised that a few corporations both globally
and also India, are beginning to dominate the field. It is pertinent to mention
that before the pandemic, government researchers estimated that India’s digital
shift could unlock as much as $1 trillion of economic value over the coming
five years. But the crisis is spreading those benefits and widening
socio-economic inequalities. The government needs to ensure that all Indians
are in a position to benefit from digitisation, specially the rural folk and start
planning ahead for the next generation. Digital inequality should not be an
addition to its list of failures. ----INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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