India Inequality Report 2022: Digital Divide

On 5th December, 2022, Oxfam India released - 'India Inequality Report 2022: Digital Divide'. The 2022 issue of the inequality report highlights the extent of the digital divide in India and its impact on essential services such as education, health and financial inclusion.

  • The report analyses the primary data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s (CMIE) household survey held from Jan 2018 to Dec 2021.

Highlights: Digital Divide Based on Gender: While 61 per cent of men owned mobile phones in 2021, their access remained limited to just 31 per cent women.

  • Digital Divide Based on Employment Status and Caste: 95 per cent of the salaried permanent workers have a phone whereas only 50 per cent of the unemployed (willing and looking for a job) have a phone in 2021.
  • Rural-urban Digital Divide: Despite registering a significant digital growth rate of 13 per cent in a year, only 31 per cent of the rural population uses Internet compared to 67 percent of their urban counterparts.
  • Uneven Distribution among States: Among states, Maharashtra has the highest internet penetration, followed by Goa and Kerala, while Bihar has the lowest, followed by Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
  • Access to Computer & Internet for Education: As per the National Service Scheme [NSS (2017-18)], only about 9 percent of the students who were enrolled in any course had access to a computer with internet and 25 percent of enrolled students had access to the internet through any kind of devices.
  • India’s Rank in UN’s e-Participation Index (2022): The report highlighted that India ranked 105 out of 193 nations in UN’s e-participation index (2022).

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