Indian Women Face Inequality In The Internet Usage As well

No Access to Internet for Indian Women

Recently released UNICEF’s report on STATE OF WORLD’s CHILDREN stated that in India oly 29% of female population have access to the internet. The survey was done between the age group of 15 to 24 years. While stating India report says that, the male population having access to internet in India is 71%. which is much more than the female population.

This further differs in Urban and Rural India. In urban areas of India the males have 62% of internet access whil eonly 38% females have internet access. In rural areas, this gap wides more. 88% of males have access to the internet and only 12% of females can access internet.

As per the report, the gap is not narrowing but widening. The global gap in internet use between men and women grew from 11% in 2013 to 12% in 2016.

Report found that various socio economic and cultural barriers among them social norms, education level, lack of technical literacy and lack of confidence, tend to kep girls and women from using mobile phones. Prevelence of traditional restriction has also served to hamper women’s access to technology. Some groups in India inhibit women’s access to technology and imposses banns on women using and owning mobile phones, report stated.

In India marked desparity in education, income, emlyoment, age, location (urban/rural) and cultural norms restricts women’s ownership of phones and access to the internet. Several cases of banning mobile phones were reported previously, majorly in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. While at a point India talks about Digital India and Beti Padhao, a major percent of half of the population of India don’t have access to the Internet.