THE DIGITAL VOID
Where do we see ourselves in terms of digital literacy in the coming five years? Remarkably well. But can we imagine the same for rural India? The Covid years in India have brought to the fore the reality of ‘Digital Divide’ only now, and we have realized that the Internet is not as inclusive as it claims to be. But this digital void has always been there. The truth is that today, as India is inching towards a fully digital life at a fast pace, we still cannot claim this is happening uniformly.
INDIA AT A CROSSROAD
NSS data says that the digital literacy rate in India at household level stands at 38% with 61% urban households being digital literate while only 25% rural households being digitally literate. So, as the internet is rapidly becoming fundamental towards the making of an equitable society, India today stands at an inflection point. How we resolve this gap depends largely on our abilities to digitally literate rural India and provide equal opportunities.
HOW TO ACHIEVE AN EQUITABLE SOCIETY
We, at Advaita Bodhi, work primarily on four pillars—digital inclusion, financial inclusion, quality education for rural communities and rural entrepreneurship. As an integral digital action organization, Advaita Bodhi Foundation believes in the creation of information empowerment, equitable communities by providing digital access to information, knowledge and contextual capacity. Our goal is to make technology easily accessible to the rural masses, to empower rural women, youth, differently abled and the elderly through a functional digital literacy, media literacy and digital upskilling across agriculture, micro and nano-business, health, education, livelihood, and entrepreneurship.
