Digital Divide

♤ The term Digital divide describes a gap between those who have ready access to information and communicationtechnology and the skills to make use of those technology and those who do not have the access or skills to use those same technologies within a geographic area, society or community.

♤ The Internet users account for only 40% of world's population and most of them live in developed countries.

♤ India's status: Only 20% population using internet which is very less, compared to china(46%),

♤ USA(86%). The country is ranked 119th in the world in the ICT Development Index, below Zimbabwe, Bhutan and Ghana

♤ Efforts made towards bridging the gap:

♤ Digital India Programme: A programme to transform India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy.

♤ Other programs are National Mission on Education through ICT, National Knowledge Network, Kisan Call centre, Life Line India, Gyandoot Project, TDIL (Technology Development for Indian Languages), National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and VidyaVahini, digital mobile libraries and library networks and community information centers etc.

♤ Challenges and Barriers to Bridging the Digital Divide:

♤ IT Infrastructural and Electricity barriers: India still lacks a robust telecommunication infrastructure with sufficient reliable bandwidth for Internet connection. Over one third of India's rural population lacked electricity, as did 6% of the urban population which is essential for computers, internet use.

♤ Literacy and skill barriers :IT literacy is very important to allow access to digital information. Generally, online content and information have been designed for an audience that reads at an average or advanced literacy level. In a country like India where roughly 50 percent of people do not have reading and writing skills for functioning in everyday life, IT literacy is out of the question.

♤ Economic barriers: In India (30% people below poverty line) the ability to purchase or rent the tool for access to digital information is less among the masses. The lower income group does not have discretionary money to spend on cyber–cafes or to get Internet connectivity on their own to access digital information.

♤ Language barriers: India is a country having a multicultural and multilingual population. Today a large percentage of information content on the Internet is in English, which is a barrier for the people whose primary language is not English.

♤ Benefits of Bridging Digital Divide

♤ There are immense benefits of bridging digital divide in the fields of economy, governance like Employment, economic growth, education, health, building social capital, efficient implementation of government schemes, agriculture sector