NSO report shows stark digital divide affects education
Context: Evidence of significant disparity in access to online schooling during COVID-19
Findings:
- Schools across the country have now been closed for six months due to COVID-19, but this means vastly different things for different people.
- For the child in urban Himachal Pradesh, where Internet penetration is higher than 70%, it likely means online schooling, Zoom classes and digital textbooks. For the child in rural Odisha, where less than 6% of households have Internet facilities, such options are out of the question.
- A recent report on the latest National Statistical Organisation (NSO) survey shows just how stark is the digital divide across States, cities and villages, and income groups.
- The survey on household social consumption related to education was part of the NSO’s 75th round, conducted from July 2017 to June 2018. The final report was released recently.
- Across India, only one in ten households have a computer — whether a desktop, laptop or tablet.
- However, almost a quarter of all homes have Internet facilities, accessed via a fixed or mobile network using any device, including smartphones. Most of these Internet-enabled homes are located in cities, where 42% have Internet access. In rural India, however, only 15% are connected to the internet.
- The national capital has the highest Internet access, with 55% of homes having such facilities.
- Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are the only other States where more than half of all households have Internet.
- At the other end of the spectrum is Odisha, where only one in ten homes has Internet. There are ten other States with less than 20% Internet penetration, including States with software hubs such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
- The biggest divide is by economic status, which the NSO marks by dividing the population into five equal groups, based on their usual monthly per capita expenditure.
- Even in Odisha, almost 63% of homes in the top urban quintile have Internet facilities. In the poorest quintile of rural Odisha, however, that figure drops to an abysmal 2.4%.
- Kerala shows the least inequality: more than 39% of the poorest rural homes have Internet, in comparison to 67% of the richest urban homes.
- Himachal Pradesh also fares well, with 40% of the lowest rural quintile having Internet.
- Assam shows the most stark inequality, with almost 80% of the richest urban homes having the Internet access denied to 94% of those in the poorest rural homes in the State.
- The Centre has directed State Education Departments to map the online access available to all their students and much of the focus has been on digital platforms, television and radio.