Digital divide

Topic: Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary Activities · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 6 "Tertiary and Quaternary Activities"

Meaning

The digital divide is the gap between people, regions and countries that have good access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology: computers, mobile phones, the internet and the services that run on them) and those that do not, so the benefits of ICT are also shared unevenly.

It matters because jobs, education, health care, banking and government services are moving online. People and places that are left out also miss out on knowledge-based development, including the high-value quaternary and quinary jobs.

Explanation

How the divide forms (cause → process → result)

• Cause: differences between countries and groups (NCERT)
• Economic position: income and how much is invested in infrastructure.
• Political position: policy, governance and stability.

• Social position: education, caste, class and gender.

• Process: speed of spreading ICT

• These differences decide how fast a country can give ICT access and its benefits to its people.

• The faster it does this, the more it gains from ICT-based development.

• Result between countries

• Developed countries have generally surged ahead.

• Developing countries have lagged behind.

• Result within countries

• In large countries such as India and Russia, metropolitan centres (big cities) are better connected.
• Peripheral rural areas (remote villages far from the core cities) are poorly connected.

The four dimensions (layers) of the divide

Having a mobile tower nearby is not enough. A person can be left out at any of these four layers:

Dimension	What it means	Example of a gap
Access	Physical infrastructure (towers, optical fibre, electricity) and devices (phone, computer)	A village with no 4G tower and no broadband
Affordability	Whether people can pay for data plans and devices	A family that cannot buy a smartphone for each child
Skills	Digital literacy (the ability to use digital devices and services safely and usefully)	A person who owns a phone but cannot fill in an online form or use UPI
Use	Whether people actually use ICT to learn, earn and reach services	Using the internet only for entertainment, not for jobs or education

• Quality gap: more people now get online, but the speed and quality of their connection still differ widely. So two "online" people may not get the same benefit [3].

Who is left out

• The divide runs along several lines:
• Income: poor and rich.
• Gender: women and men.
• Place: rural and urban areas.
• Age: young and old.
• Language: most online content is in English.
• Disability: many websites and apps cannot be used by people with disabilities.

Link to tertiary, quaternary and quinary activities

• Quaternary activities (knowledge work such as IT-BPM and research) and quinary activities (top-level decision-making) depend on ICT.
• So the digital divide also decides where these jobs come up:
• They gather in well-connected metros and IT-BPM hubs.
• They miss the poorly connected periphery.
• This deepens the core–periphery gap (the gap between a rich, developed centre and the poorer areas around it).

Where it occurs

World

• About 6 billion people, or roughly three-quarters of humanity, were using the internet in 2025. The revised figure for 2024 was 5.8 billion [3].
• 2.2 billion people were still offline in 2025, down from a revised 2.3 billion in 2024 [3].
• 96% of offline people live in low- and middle-income countries [3]. Africa has the lowest share of people online.
• Internet access is still unaffordable in about 60% of low- and middle-income countries (2025) [3].
• Gaps by group (ITU, 2025):
• Urban 85% vs rural 58% online [3].
• Men 77% vs women 71% online [3].

• 82% of 15–24-year-olds vs 72% of the rest of the population online [3].

• Russia: metros such as Moscow and St Petersburg are better connected than its peripheral rural areas (NCERT example).

India

• Metro vs periphery: big cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and IT-BPM hubs such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and NCR, are well connected. Hilly, tribal, island and Northeastern areas lag, because laying fibre and building towers there costs more for each user.
• Tele-density (telephone connections, fixed line and mobile, per 100 people): TRAI data show urban tele-density is far above rural tele-density. Urban figures can be above 100 because many people own more than one SIM.
• Village coverage (September 2024): of 6,44,131 villages, more than 6,22,804 have mobile coverage and more than 6,14,564 have 4G [2].
• Tribal gap (PM JANMAN, Ministry of Tribal Affairs):
• More than 4,543 PVTG habitations (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) had no mobile coverage. Only 1,136 had been covered by 2024 [2].

• By October 2024, 1,018 mobile towers had been sanctioned for 4G in PVTG habitations, at an estimated cost of ₹1,014 crore [2].

• COVID-19 (2020–21): schools closed and teaching moved online. Children without smartphones, data or a stable network, mostly in rural areas and poor homes, lost months of learning.

India's responses

Initiative	What it does	Dimension tackled	Fact
Digital India	Umbrella programme to make India a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy	All	Launched 2015
BharatNet (Ministry of Communications)	Optical fibre broadband to every gram panchayat (village council)	Access	Over 2.14 lakh GPs connected as of 27 December 2024 [2]
Digital Bharat Nidhi (earlier USOF)	Pays for mobile and broadband in underserved areas	Access	8,730 towers installed; over 1.99 lakh villages covered by BBNL (27 December 2024) [2]
Satellite internet	Broadband for hilly, island and remote areas where laying fibre is hard	Access	Being rolled out
PM-WANI	Public Wi-Fi hotspots run by small local operators	Affordability	2,47,076 hotspots (27 December 2024) [2]
PMGDISHA	Digital literacy training for rural households	Skills	Rural focus
Common Service Centres (CSCs)	Village centres that deliver government and business services online	Skills / use	Serve people with no device or skills
Aadhaar and UPI (digital public infrastructure)	12-digit biometric identity; instant mobile payments	Use / affordability	Low-cost, open platforms

• Safety and grievance:
• The Sanchar Saathi portal lets citizens track and report mobile connections taken in their name without their consent.
• TRAI uses AI to detect unregistered telemarketers [2].

Don't confuse with

• Digital literacy: this is only the skills layer of the divide. The digital divide is the wider gap, which also covers access, affordability and use.
• Tele-density: this counts telephone connections per 100 people. A high figure does not mean people use the internet well, and urban tele-density can be above 100 because of multiple SIMs.
• Coverage vs use: mobile/4G coverage means a signal reaches the village. Use means people can pay for it, know how to use it and actually use it to learn or earn. India has nearly full 4G coverage of villages, but the divide remains.
• PM-WANI vs PMGDISHA: PM-WANI sets up public Wi-Fi hotspots (access and affordability). PMGDISHA gives rural digital literacy training (skills).

Prelims Hooks

• NCERT: the digital divide comes from economic, political and social differences. Its result depends on how fast a country gives ICT access to its people. NCERT's within-country example is India and Russia.
• ITU Facts and Figures 2025: about 6 billion people online and 2.2 billion offline. 96% of offline people are in low- and middle-income countries [3].
• Online share in 2025: rural 58% vs urban 85%, and women 71% vs men 77% [3].
• BharatNet takes optical fibre to gram panchayats, not to individual homes or district headquarters. Over 2.14 lakh GPs were connected by December 2024 [2].
• Digital Bharat Nidhi is the new name of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) [2].
• Trap: India's 4G reached over 6.14 lakh of 6.44 lakh villages by September 2024 [2]. Coverage is not the same as use, because affordability and skills gaps remain.

Mains Points

• Causes and spatial pattern (GS-I, distribution of services):
• ICT infrastructure follows income and population density, so it gathers in metros and IT-BPM hubs (Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, NCR).
• Hilly, tribal, island and Northeastern areas lag because each user costs more to connect. Over 4,543 PVTG habitations had no mobile coverage [2].

• This makes the core–periphery gap in quaternary and quinary jobs worse.

• Effects:

• The divide turns into gaps in education (seen in COVID-19 online learning), health (telemedicine), finance (UPI, DBT) and jobs.
• Women, the elderly, persons with disabilities and people who do not speak English are hit hardest.

• Globally, 2.2 billion people offline in 2025 [3] means developing countries risk missing knowledge-economy gains.

• Policy response and way forward (GS-III, infrastructure):

• India uses a layered approach:
  • BharatNet, Digital Bharat Nidhi towers and satellite broadband for access.
  • PM-WANI for affordability.
  • PMGDISHA and CSCs for skills.
  • UPI and Aadhaar-based digital public infrastructure for use.
• Remaining gaps: keeping last-mile fibre working, the cost of devices, content in Indian languages, and turning coverage into real use.
• Way forward:
  • Focus on connection quality and speed, not just coverage.
  • Digital literacy for women and the elderly.
  • Apps and websites that people with disabilities can use.
  • Vernacular content (content in Indian languages).
  • Community Wi-Fi in PVTG and border areas.

Read more

• The digital divide