Digitalising Indian Villages

According to a report by Kantar, rural India, with 304 million monthly active internet users, will be the major driver of internet usage in the country. Rural India saw 4 times more growth in active users than urban India. With increasing access to the internet, rural India has found more opportunities to grow. Farmers can now get connected to the National Mandi for their produce, the artisans can reach out to global consumers through e-commerce and the younger generation can learn better skills and get better employment opportunities. It has also strengthened Panchayati Raj governance and helped in better implementation of government schemes. Its potential impacts on the children can lay the ground for a healthier and more skilled generation.

Internet in the Education Sector

Even with the state making sure that education as a right is accessible by all, a large number of rural children are either not able to make it to schools or have to face a lack of quality education. Some of the schools are located in remote areas which makes reaching the school a challenge itself. Schools in rural areas also suffer from lack of infrastructure and shortage of teachers. According to a report by Forbes India, there are 97,273 single teacher schools in India, this is equivalent to 8.8% of the total schools in India. These hurdles are a major reason for school dropout rates as well. This makes it difficult to achieve the United Nation’s fourth Sustainable Development Goal, which aims to provide inclusive and equitable quality education to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Access to the internet is fundamental to achieving this vision for the future.

Internet-based education has the potential to mitigate issues of quality and disinterest. Teaching through the use of video lessons can make the lessons interactive. Internet also opens up an opportunity to connect with the wider world outside the classroom. In addition to its use by teachers, guidance on how to utilise the power of the internet can encourage students to explore and learn from this repository of knowledge. Their skill and knowledge accusation would not be restricted by the syllabus. Internet also makes it possible for the teacher to reach out to a large number of students across various locations at the same time. This can play a major role in solving the issue of teacher shortage in the country.

The Integrative approach to technology project being implemented in the seven north and northeastern states of India is an indicator of how the internet can be utilised to deliver knowledge in rural areas. According to the teachers in the states, project-based learning through the internet has made the students more inquisitive. The lessons have become more interactive and students were able to connect even the abstract mathematical theorems to real-life situations. The internet also allowed students to access information in their local languages. Internet thus has the potential to strengthen the efforts of making the basic human right to education become universally accessible.

Internet and Social Growth

Childhood has, on numerous occasions, been considered the base of a healthy youth and an overall productive life. But there are a number of challenges in ensuring that every child has a healthy and enriching childhood. Instances of child labour are high in the country. Child marriages and malnourishment are other inhibitors to a normal childhood. Inadequate nutrition in the first 1000 days of a child’s life can lead to stunted growth, associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school and work performance. As per the Global Nutrition Report, 46.6 million children in India are stunted.

Internet has the potential to change this. It allows the information to reach the most remote of areas. Organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, are utilising its powers to reach out to the target audiences. Its role in the spread of education has been discussed above. All this together results in better awareness about the rights of children and the legal action that follows the breach of rules. It’s a two-way road, community activists can also use internet to reach out to organisations for help in order to stop child marriages or child labour. An interesting example of the use of internet to reduce or stop child marriages is to be found in Bangladesh. They, together with Plan International, have launched an app that allows the marriage registrars, solemnisers or matchmakers to establish the true age of the Bride and Groom. Since the physical documents were easy to forge, this app helps to digitally verify the document. It has helped to stop as many as 3700 child marriages. Government of India also launched a website pencil.gov.in to empower and encourage the civil society’s participation in the Anti- child labour programmes. It allows them to raise a complaint online instantly. Thus, through these applications and websites, internet allows for a an active community participation in the achievement of global goals with respect to Children marriages and child labour.

Another important hurdle to an active and fruitful childhood is lack of adequate nutrition. When the women in the family do not receive the nutrition they must, it leads to rising cases of children being malnourished or being born with physical and mental deficiencies. A malnourished child cannot even make use of his/her cognitive skills and usually lags behind in life. Targeting the mother and child health, thus, could go a long way in reducing malnutrition among rural kids. Ministry of Women and Child Development, recently launched ICDS-CAS ( Common Application Software). It utilises internet technology for real-time Monitoring of nutritional outcomes. It would help in better tracking of beneficiaries and would make sure that home visits for pregnant women are done on time. It digitalises data entry and thus makes nutrition statuses available at all times. It has also improved the supervision of ground-level Anganwadi Workers and Lady Supervisors. This ensure that all benefits reach the mother on time, she takes proper nutritional supplements and gets an institutional delivery done.  Internet, thus, has the potential to bring about improvement in mother-child health. This will have a domino effect on the lifelong productivity of the child.

There is still more left to do!

The Government of India has, over the years, taken a number of steps to reduce the rural-urban digital divide. Going back five years, the government launched the Digital India mission. It was an umbrella programme with schemes in areas of digital infrastructure, digital empowerment, on-demand government services. One of the main agendas of the programme is to expand internet connectivity to rural areas. The government aims to achieve the goal of a digital village – rural areas with telemedicine facilities, virtual classes and solar power based WiFi hot spots. National Optic Fibre Network will be used to ensure internet connectivity to 2,50,000 gram panchayats. Rural Internet Mission involves the conversion of some 1,50,000 Post Offices into internet-based multi-service centres. In December last year, government launched a project with an investment of seven trillion – The National Broadband Mission. The agenda is to provide broadband access to all villages by 2022. Three million route kilometres of optical fibre cable is planned to be laid and density of tower per thousand is expected to increase.

Despite the fact that rural internet users are on a rise due to the efforts of the government but there are still hurdles left to cross. Lack of infrastructure necessary for the setting up of the connections is a major issue. In remote areas and difficult terrains, it becomes extremely difficult to lay down the fibre optic cables. The rural areas also suffer from poor internet speed making the use of internet ineffective. With widespread poverty, not everyone is able to afford a smartphone or personal computer to access the internet. Fluctuating electricity availability is another issue.  We have come a long way but there is still a long road to tread.

Conclusion

Internet has immense potential to bring about a positive change in the lives of the rural kids. This can be a major push to India’s dream of reaping the demographic dividend. Policymakers have realised the importance of India’s villages in making India a digital nation. But while making all the efforts we need to stay aware of the fact that rural India also suffers from digital illiteracy. Hence,  according to a study by the World Bank, just providing them with internet connection will not lead to full utilisation of the internet potential. Even in school, teachers need to be well trained in how to prepare and disseminate an internet-based lesson. The ground level workers in villages need digital guidance so that they can efficiently use internet for awareness and monitoring. The policymakers and development experts seeking to improve the lives of rural kids must make sure that increasing internet penetration must be balanced with digitally skilled citizens.

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• Sukanya Samriddi Yojana- This scheme is for your daughter’s education and marriage they want to convey that parents can secure and plan their daughter’s life more effectively. It provides an annualized return of 8.1%. 
• National Pension Scheme – It fulfills the needs of retirement needs. It provides the tax benefits for investment up to Rs 50,000 under section 80CCD in addition to Rs 150000 under section 80C. 
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana – This scheme caters to the needs of the economically weaker section of the society and helps them with basic banking services like a savings account, insurance, pension, etc. The minimum contribution is Rs 1000 while there is no cap on the maximum contribution.
• Public Provident Fund – It is a long term saving scheme that benefits the self-employed people to save for their retirement. It offers tax benefits under 80 C of the Income-Tax Act and provides a tax-free return on maturity. Tax-free interest on maturity and provides an annualized return of 7.6%. 
• National Savings Certificate – It is a small savings and tax savings investment. It is issued for 5 and 10 years and considered as a government saving bond. Provides annualized return of 7.6% and qualifies for IT Rebate under 80C
• Atal Pension Yojana – It is targeted to the unorganized sector and provides pension benefits with a minimum contribution per month. Suitable for all individuals between 18 to 40 years of age.
• Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana – It is a life insurance scheme which was introduced by our late finance minister Arun Jaitley to increase the number of insurances in the country which is very low. The premium is Rs 330 every year.

These schemes are for both men and women but there are few social security schemes for women empowerment as well these schemes are as followed: 

• Mahila E-Haat – It is an online marketing platform which is launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to support women entrepreneur. Women can register themselves at www.mahilaehaat-rmk.gov.in for showcasing their work to a larger audience. This initiative also comes under ‘Digital India’. 
• Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao – This was launched in 2015 the initial funding of this scheme was 100 crore. It targets the clusters in  Punjab, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana. To bridge the gap between the birth of a girl child and boy government came up with this scheme to ‘Save Girl Child’. 
• One-Stop Centre Scheme – This scheme was implemented with the ‘Nirbhaya’ fund. This scheme is for the victims of violence and it provides services like shelter, legal, medical and counseling services under one roof. The toll-free helpline number is 181. 
• Working Women Hostel – The objective of this scheme is to promote safe accommodation for women in urban, semi-urban and rural areas. 
• Swadhar Greh – The Swadhar scheme was launched by the Union Ministry of Women and Child for the rehabilitation of women in tough circumstances. The beneficiaries include food, clothing, the shelter of vulnerable women. Mainly for a dowager, women released from jail and without family support. 
• Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) – The Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) emphasizes on providing women with the necessary skills that give employability to women. This project will be for up to 5 years. Includes sectors like agriculture, horticulture, food processing, handlooms, tailoring, stitching, embroidery, zari, etc, handicrafts, computer & IT enable services along with soft skills and skills for the workplace such as spoken English, gems & jewellery, travel & tourism, hospitality, etc.

But even after these security schemes for women, there are still lakhs of workers who are not well known with the schemes. They need proper comprehensive documents and other information which usually they are not able to provide. There needs to be a proper layout of how these schemes should be known by all the workers and for that, the government has to take various measures such as Simplification of default penal charges, the mode of payment, removal of the closure of account after 24 months and conducting a meeting with the State Governments. 

In India, almost 94% of total women workers are engaged in the informal sector. Which constitutes a massive part of the informal sector. Due to the current pandemic, the situation in the informal sector has been devastating for workers especially women workers as not only do they face higher risks due to their social disadvantages but also they have fewer resources as compared to men working in the informal sector. It is time for our government to go beyond these schemes measures for formal sectors but also an emphasis on the informal sector as most of the people belong there. 

We Need a Comprehensive Social Security Schemes for Women

The Directive Principles of State Policy in Article 41 of the Constitution says that within the limits of its economic capacity, the State would provide “public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness, disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want” It is the responsibility of the state to provide with a social security scheme and shouldn’t be treated as a burden. Social Security Schemes for Women in India should be based on ILO’s social protection floor framework. It should be universal and should provide vulnerable groups with immediate reliefs. The state should also support the women’s participation in all aspects of administration as well as the informal sector including anganwadi workers.

These government-sponsored schemes are made to promote social welfare for women and for reducing poverty, malnutrition and improve the basic healthcare structure but due to ineffective implementation and inefficiencies in the system, we failed. These failures adversely impact the lives of women. The parameters and approach to social security schemes for women are guided by the Ministry of Labour and Employment but are also shaped with international standards which include nutrition, healthcare, housing, education, water and sanitation. The equalisation of schemes should also be considered and focused upon. There is an urgent need to effectively implement these social security schemes for women and to bridge the gap.

Strategy to Implement 

• The government should give the workers the right to leave with pay during the lockdown. The minimum wages for women workers should be increased by giving them a brief understanding about the different investment and security schemes. 
• States like Kerala have implemented recovery funds set up which help the workers recoup with the disposition of assets. 
• A reliable healthcare sector which has been given to the formal sector should be extended to the informal sector as well. 
• The scheme should not just be economically driven but should also be given on providing them with social equality amongst men. 
• Pension should be given importance as it is an integral part of social security. It should be examined with the central government and should be given at the right time and explain them in a simple manner.

For many years the Ministry of Labour and Employment is working on bringing a common body for universal social security. It’s high time the government implements it. Since independence, we have come a long way ahead and now we understand the needs of our workers who are the backbone of our country. Now we just need to act on it. 

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