"Internet, what's that" asks 84% of rural India: IMRB & IAMAI Study

The advent of Internet has been largely responsible for coining of terms like "global village', where the whole world is brought under one roof. However 84 per cent of rural India is not a part of this process, mainly because they are ignorant about the existence of internet.

According to a survey conducted jointly by IMRB International and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), this is chiefly due to lack of adequate infrastructure.

Further, it was stated in the report that 38 per cent people in rural areas do not feel the need for the Internet and 31 per cent of rural population does not have Internet access point and 25 per cent population has no internet connection and about 22 per cent has no electricity. Another reason is because there is a lack of personal ownership of digital gadgets which is an impediment to the Internet penetration in rural India.

Setting up fundamental infrastructure is extremely important for the rural internet penetration to rise. The expediency of the internet in terms of providing information must be taught at basic levels in rural India. The government must develop schemes like CSC (Common Service Centre) and SWAN (State Wide Area Network) and should also have appropriate personnel to manage these schemes.

Through such schemes now about 70 per cent of the rural population access the internet according to the report. Since majority of rural India have farming as their occupation, the helpfulness of the internet in knowing about the weather or farm products or prices must be promoted in order to increase awareness.

The Government should take up more initiatives such as these to ensure 100 per cent internet literacy among rural Indians, to expedite growth. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]