Nitika Banhani
The Government of India has been aggressively advocating for a revolution in education, healthcare, banking, and travel. Technology is one among the many drivers executing the government’s vision, and the Digital India campaign is a prevalent example of the same. The pandemic brought with it the urgent need to go ‘online’. While this was widely considered by the population as an immediate means to continue with their livelihood; it led to growing disparities for women in rural and urban households alike. Especially, in terms of technological accessibility. The depth and layers of this disparity have become more visible over time.
Four months into the pandemic, I had a chance to teach and converse with the students at government schools in a few villages in Madhya Pradesh. The Government in lieu of the pandemic had recently announced that the classes must be conducted online. All communication regarding education were to be conducted through platforms like WhatsApp, emails and other applications that supported data sharing and had visual features like hosting videos and presentations. During this whole process, I met a girl in the village of Piparkheda, named Arti who was in the seventh grade. She was at her home washing clothes when I spoke to her at length about her life and she shared how her life was now restricted to merely home chores, she was asked to quit school and had her access to education was denied. She had no device with which she could connect and get the syllabus and other books or resources that were being shared on the digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the same house, I could see that her younger brother who was in the fourth grade, had a smartphone with internet data available and recharged. He was able to use it for leisure purposes and was unquestioned. This is one of the many examples of the gendered nature of technological access.
In a study conducted by the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications – Association) titled ‘Connected Women 2019 Gender Gap Report’, it was revealed that, “Indian women are 28 percent less likely than men to own a mobile phone, and 56 percent less likely to use mobile internet. This represents one of the widest mobile gender gaps in the world.” In another survey done by the International Telecommunication Union in 2021, it was released that within Asia-pacific, India had the widest gender gap in internet usage in recent years, a gender gap of 40.4 percent with only 15 percent of women accessing the internet versus 25 percent of men. The data clearly suggests the lack of access to women and I would like to put forth that India is in dire need to establish better technological infrastructure for women and other marginalized identities and that it is accessible without hindrances and judgement.
The image above depicts the internet users in the South Asian countries with regards to gender.
Today, access to technology is equivalent to the notion of acquiring power. It is a means of keeping us informed about almost everything happening in the world and thus giving the upper hand to the ones with an easy access to it. It enables many services like banking transactions, shopping and it also keeps us connected with our loved ones across the world. It certainly creates an identity of a person and uses data and algorithms to validate their choices. However, what I want to highlight is that women, especially younger females, and other marginalized genders in the Indian households face a systemic and patriarchal ‘concern’ when it comes to owning a technological device that is not rudimentary. Many households even today consider providing a smartphone to women as a source that would ‘corrupt’ them of their moral values’. Hence, if technology is indeed equivalent to the notion of acquiring power, then a lack of access to technology makes it difficult for them to grow in a rapidly changing world that has now come to depend immensely on technological developments.
Availability of technological devices, especially smartphones, and access to the internet today gauges and also determines access to basic services. Covid vaccination can be cited as another recent and major example to understand this lack of technological access. In the initial months of its availability to the general public, the vaccination slots were booked and available only through the website or App, and many women including the staff of Public Healthcare Centres had no proper access to information regarding the same. They were neither trained nor provided a device to do so. I do remember that the women who were working as Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), which is a respected position to hold for the women in the local hospitals, even they did not know how to book a slot either. This affected the villagers who depended on them to being vaccinated.
Even in urban cityscapes, the women entrepreneurs running their small businesses are losing out on opportunities to expand due to the lack of better digital accessibility and literacy. Men usually have a systemic advantage to understand technology better. Society is primarily concerned about the ‘bread earners’ who are usually preferred to be males (despite women making their mark equally) and thus, prefers them to have an upper hand with regard to technology. In a recent survey done by indiabioscience.org of 733 students studying in government schools in Bihar, only 28% of the girls had smartphones in their homes, in contrast to 36% of the boys and the reasons that were stated by the family were defined gender roles and limitations of livelihood. Money also plays an important role in selecting who gets to decide and for whom. The apparent ‘bread earners’ and the ‘treasurers’ who hold the power to dictate where the resources are channelised, do not see a need to provide the technological channels to the marginalised, particularly women.
The government has launched multiple schemes over the years, like PM Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan scheme and Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women, to bridge the gender gap in the digital and technological areas in the country, but in my analysis, it hasn’t yet reached the intended audience. For a more coherent impact, the approach must sensitize the families regarding the equity of technological access to women. We must also speak to the men in the family and make them realise about the systemic discrimination that the women face in the societal structures and how that creates rifts in their growth.
A proper implementation of the digital access schemes through platforms that are more available for women like anganwadis, creches and schools - in rural areas; and community centres and parks, etc. - in urban areas can be identified. These spaces usually do not create a familial rift and can be used to train women and help them in starting conversations, as well as hold training sessions on using technology to learn, for example how to use internet to explore difficult topics in subjects like math or science; they can also be taught how to browse through the internet to explore prospects of future education, etc. It can also be used to address their grievances and tell them about various helpline numbers and contacts of NGOs working towards women empowerment.
A study titled ‘Women’s Economic Mobility and Online Exposure’, by Koan Advisory Group (Koan), a New Delhi-based public policy consulting firm and the Ola Mobility Institute (OMI), a policy research and social innovation think tank conducted a survey of 4091 women across 10 cities, this is a first-of-its kind study that quantifies the impact of granting digital accessibility to women on the Indian economy.
The study found that if women had access to online services, they would spend an additional 102 million hours on paid activities in the economy. This could result in the generation of an additional $103 billion in monetary value, or 3.9 percent of the GDP. Almost 29 percent of this gain is due to a jump in productivity, while the remaining 71 percent is due to additional time allocation. Importantly, these gains are likely to increase as digital services expand their footprint in India, because network effects bestow increasing value gains.
Presenting these important figures and numbers to the communities far and large can also help in empowering the digital rights for women and can lead to formation of communities who can help each other out in pursuing a career and heeding of entrepreneurial ventures through digital mediums. This in turn will help the household grow and perhaps in future contribute to better education for the girls in the households. Apart from this, they must also be given training that can pertain to the digital rights and privacy that can be ascertained by the women. Digital equity is the need of the hour if India as a country seeks a digital revolution and wants to see a future that provides better basic services to larger populations.
The author is a Research Fellow at Plaksha University