Digitally invisible

The much-touted Digital India policy cannot be fulfilled if half the country’s population — its girls and women — are left behind, writes Srijita Majumder

Twenty-one-year-old Deepa from Ajmer district did a short-term foundational IT course hoping to break the cycle of generational poverty and have a better future. “I used to stay up nights and spend extra time in the computer lab to understand the nuances of coding. Coming from a rural background, it was difficult to follow the course since I never had access to a computer,” she says. Her hard work paid off, and soon after completing the course, Deepa appeared for a competitive certification process and succeeded. However, she had a tough time finding an internship, given that she was a B.A. — no employer was ready to take on a candidate from a non-tech undergraduate background. “If I had a better idea about career choices and better financial means, I would have chosen a tech degree,” she says.

Like Deepa, there are several instances of girls keen to pursue digital skill courses like Cloud Computing, UI/UX, Design, etc. There is, however, a clear lack of systemic readiness that prevents rural girls from entering the digital economy at every stage — from schools that are not equipped to impart digital literacy to the lack of awareness for girls to make the right choices toward such courses. Even basic issues like not having access to devices like phones and computers, girls/women have poorer access levels than men. The much-touted Digital India policy cannot be fulfilled if half the country’s population — its girls and women — are left behind.

Poor access to girls
in the digital space

The Digital India programme was launched in 2015 as the flagship programme of the Government of India to transform India into a digitally empowered society. However, it was the Covid-19 pandemic that truly gave it a push, with remote online-based work becoming the order of the day for offices, and even schools, which had to impart education online. Only during the pandemic did access to technology and the ‘digital divide’ in the country become an important discussion.

According to the National Family Health Survey-5, 2020, there is a significant digital divide between men and women, and between rural and urban India, with rural women having the lowest access to the internet. While 73% of urban men have used the internet, the corresponding figure for women is 56%, and in rural India, it stands at 55% of men versus 34% of women. Combined with the statistics on female labour force participation rates — a figure where India has one of the world’s lowest — this makes for rather underwhelming statistics. For instance, female participation rates decreased to 20% in 2019 and further to 16% during the quarter of July-September 2020. Hence, unless the gender gap in technology — access to devices and the internet — is addressed, not only will India’s digitising ambitions remain unfulfilled, but it will also impact women’s participation in the labour market.

The missing links

Like Deepa, most girls from rural parts of the country or poor social and economic backgrounds cannot pursue their ambitions due to societal and systemic challenges. Monica, from Jaipur, always took a keen interest in science and technology as early as middle school. Her father, a stone layer, did not have the wherewithal to send her outside their village to study. She recalls having to take up Humanities, after 10th grade, as the village school only offered that. “If I had the option, I would have taken up Science, but that would have meant going to a private school outside my village, which my father could not afford,” she says. In Ajmer district, where Deepa grew up, only a few private universities offer B.C.A./B.Tech degrees and admission fees are too high for most families to afford. At the societal level, traditional beliefs reinforce gender norms. When gender intersects with poverty and also caste, the barriers are further deepened. According to NFHS-4 (2015-16), only 54% of girls could go to a local market alone. Let alone move out of home for study or work. This is evidence of deep-rooted gender norms prevalent in society. Even though there are government-sponsored schemes for skilling and employment of rural girls, access to these schemes remains a cause for concern. Some courses have limited seats for girls, and many offer only traditional “feminine” courses such as beauty and nursing. Vineeta from Bhilwara, Rajasthan, who trained in an IT course, says there should be more tech-intensive skill courses for girls. IT companies also need to be proactive in hiring girls who complete such courses and, if required, provide on-the-job training to equip their skills further,” she adds. To achieve its vision of Skilled India and with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 deadlines approaching, India needs to amp up its strategies to reduce the percentage of unemployed youth while reducing the gender gap simultaneously. Bridging the gender digital divide is imperative to increasing women’s participation in the workforce. With the Budget 2023-24 focusing on youth, their skill enhancement, and job creation, the time is ripe to let rural girls have the opportunity to contribute to the country’s digital dreams.

(The author works in the social development sector in a skill development project in Rajasthan. Full names have been withheld to protect the identity of girls.)