India needs to double down on bridging its digital gender gap

Context:

As per various reports, 90% of the jobs in the world today have a digital component while women and girls continue to be left behind in the digital world.

Meaning:

• It is the inequalities between men and women in terms of access to information and communications technologies.
• The term “digital gender gap” was coined by UN Women in 2010.

Digital Equity:

• It is about providing everyone with equal opportunities to use technology to improve their lives. 
• It includes making sure that everyone has access to the internet and the skills they need to use it effectively.

Data on the digital divide: 

1. UNICEF Report:
   • According to the report, in developing countries, only 41% of women have access to the internet compared with 53% of men. 
2. OECD data:
   • This report revealed that software development remains a male-dominated field, with women comprising only 15% of software designers. 
3. ICUBE 2020
   • Data on the use of the internet in India indicates that in comparison with 58% male internet users, female users are only 42%.

Benefits to women & Nation:

• India aims to have a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025. There are vast opportunities for girls and women to power India’s digital economy and benefit from it.

Can act as a multiplier effect:

• We have the world’s largest young population and women and girls constitute almost half of it. 
• Access to digital technology for a young woman can be a game changer with multiplier effects. 

Acting as a solution:

• With internet access, women can gain new knowledge and skills, connect with others and find new opportunities. 
• Digital knowledge can also play a significant role in women’s safety. 
• With digital equity, women can be empowered to reach their full potential.

Challenges leading to Gender Digital Divide

• The post-pandemic world:  
  • Children struggled to keep up with their studies using the limited smartphones and computers available to them. 
  • It is possible that within some families, boys had more access to scarce digital resources.

• Always second to men:
  • Data on literacy, education, and access to resources confirm the reality of their being second to men, the patriarchal social order.

• Online abuse faced by women:
  • The dangerous trend in online abuse was forcing women out of jobs, causing girls to skip school, damaging relationships and silencing female opinions, prompting him to conclude that “the web is not working for women and girls”.

• Offline impacts:
  • It often translates into offline impacts and consequences, with much-documented evidence in this regard. 

Suggestions 

• Addressing the divide:
  • It requires special, urgent and focused efforts of the government.
  • A large investment needs to be made in digital infrastructure. 

• Need of policy interventions:
  • Bridging the gender gap will require smart interventions specially designed for girls and women in health, education, employment, banking, skilling and transportation.

• Skills:
  • Digital skills, required today both for life and for livelihoods, must be imparted, including through the private sector.

• Online safety of women:
  • Social media sites can use their “algorithm power” to proactively tackle the issue of safety.
  • Governments need to strengthen laws that hold online abusers to account, and the public to speak up whenever they witness abuse online.
  • Example: Young women known as ‘Digital Sakhis’ from Madhya Pradesh are upturning discriminatory social norms through the use of smartphones.

• Making the right use of the G20 platform:
  • Women20—the G20’s official engagement platform to promote gender equity—identifies “bridging the gender digital divide” as one of its five priorities that need to be mainstreamed as part of the G20 agenda this year.

Conclusion:

Digital literacy for women is a necessity if India wants to achieve the ultimate goal of gender equality. Addressing the divide and safety issues and by policy interventions, positive results in desired directions will surely be achieved.

News Source: Livemint