Digital media is vivid, varied and intelligible. It unleashes ample of scopes to its audience for communication, marketing and networking. However, the accessibility in terms of usage of digital media tools varies from urban to rural (Digital Divide) and men to women (Gender Divide). In spite of several significant initiatives by the State Government, status of digital penetration continues to be bleak in Odisha.
Of late, social media giant Facebook has launched a programme for mobile users in India to access the internet for free. To start with, the California-headquartered company has offered free access to 33 specific websites, including jobs, weather and news sites.
Nevertheless, Odisha with only 35.6 per cent mobile phone users would have a smaller slice of benefit from this pan-India approach by Facebook. Ensuring technological and basic infrastructure, spanning from adequate telephone connectivity to bandwidth, is not sufficient to reduce the widened digital gap persisting in Odisha. The Government’s policies on Information Communication Technology (ICT) need to be inclusive considering the low-income communities and the mass ignorance about the use and benefits of the digital media.
Now, Digital Divide refers to the gap between those who benefit from digital technology and those who do not. The PC or personal computer penetration in Odisha is around 5 per cent - nearly 4, 92,715 people out of 96, 61,085 households surveyed in Census 2011, have access to computer in Odisha. The fraction slops down to 1.4 per cent when it comes to internet penetration - access to internet connections. This pitches Odisha in the league of States like Bihar (1 per cent), Tripura (1 per cent), Chhattisgarh (1.2 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (1.4 per cent), Meghalaya (1.5 per cent), and Jharkhand (1.5 per cent), having lower internet users. Neighbouring States like West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, however, have secured a better off rank than Odisha, according to the report.
Again, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in 2003 in Geneva, saw ICTs as vital tools for promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment. In a State like Odisha gender discrimination has now become a chronic social ailment and “Gender Divide” appears as a palpable consequence to this. “Gender Divide” denotes the lower number of women accessing and using ICT compared to men. Though ICTs offer considerable potential for reaching women with relevant information and services, women’s ownership and access to digital media is low and constrained by gender power equations as in most other sectors in rural Odisha.
In Odisha, prevalence of Digital Divide can majorly be contributed to the infrastructural barriers. At the same time, non-technological factors like telecommunication policies and literacy level pose equal challenge to the concern. Considering the importance of digital communications, this year the State has allocated an amount of Rs 20 crore to Wi-Fi facilities in six universities, 46 Government colleges and 23 non-Government colleges in Odisha as part of Smart Campus Scheme.
The Government has already launched State Youth Policy with provisions of free laptops for students belonging to tribal, Dalit and BPl categories besides scholarship provision for ST and SC girls’ who want to study technical subjects. However, inadequate infrastructure has still been a grey area for the promotion and growth of ICT in Odisha.
Digital media has undoubtedly become a single window for communications, collaboration and innovation alongside being a viable platform for global marketing and promotion. This is high time the State translated the significance of digital communication into a stark ICT policy pronouncement.
Digital literacy programme is also an effective initiative to bring society on to digital platform. ICT tools can be easy, economic and effective for skill development once significant penetration is achieved. Digital literacy alongside the access offer the right exposure and connectivity. A robust need based situation analysis emphasising the economic, social and educational status of the beneficiary is imperative before taking up any pro-ICT scheme by the Government. The existing digital communication programmes and schemes can be extended to interior pockets of Odisha encompassing various potential user-groups for awareness building, enhancing digital literacy and skill-development. Similarly, it is the responsibility of its people to tide over the mental blockade to accept, adopt and apply digital communication towards making a prosperous Odisha.
(The writer is a Bhubaneswar-based communication professional and researcher. janatavikasmanch@gmail.com)