Covid -19 and the Digital Divide

Recently, the Supreme Court raised serious concerns, pointing out that in the present scenario, our Fundamental Right, the Right to education, is under serious threat. They laid the onus of this threat on The Digital Divide prevalent in our Country.

But what actually is a  'Digital Divide' ?
 

It is the gap between individuals having access to modern information and communication and others who do not.  This gap does not only affects the Educational status but other aspects of human life such as economic status, political stability and communication

 

Before the Covid storm hit our lives, our country was still experiencing a digital divide, where rural families were deprived of the basic technical infrastructure necessary for education, communication, online banking and administration facilities. But once the  Pandemic struck our country, the situation drastically deteriorated, as all these activities transferred to online platforms. This adversely impacted underpriveliged as they do not have access to such technology.

 

Advent of e-governance made it difficult for the rural population to gain awareness about new government policies and avail their benefits. Without awareness the underprivileged cannot avail benefits provided by the government.

 

Education is power and knowledge is wealth. Education and knowledge are the most important aspects of human existence, because all things fade away with time but the knowledge remains forever. The issues faced by such students were multi-faceted.

 

·       Children in rural areas did not have the infrastructure and network facilities required to attend online schools.

 

·       Teachers also do not possess technical training required to conduct online lectures and examinations.

 

Thus, we must discuss the solutions for this issue, which demands immediate and effective action. The Government has recognised the problem and is expanding network connectivity throughout the country.

 

·                 Several policies were implemented by the government like Bharat Net Project, launched in 2011, which aimed at connecting 2.5 lakh panchayats through optical fibres to ensure sustainable network connections.

 

·                 DIKSHA ( Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) Platform was launched in 2017 for school education for Class 1 to 12, its mission being 'one nation, one digital platform for school education' in India.

·                 The National Education Policy, 2020 which aims at transforming the education system making India a 'global education Superpower'. It also focuses on vocational education along with digitising the current education system

 

We need to further penetrate these schemes.

Also, special emphasis should be placed at the district level, where the district collectors should take initiatives like encouraging organisations like the National Service Scheme, where students are given tasks to conduct surveys through phone calls. These surveys would help in addressing the problems faced by the common people. 

A unique solution which can be applied for ensuring proper education in rural areas, would be teaching through radios and Educational Television Channels. Televisions are commonly found in households and this method of instruction would be a fun and interactive way for students to learn. If televisions cannot be afforded, radios are a good alternative as they are quite affordable and, could be easily done with radios. Moreover, only a single-time investment is required. A typical radio costs about Rs. 800 in India if assisted by additional reading material these methods can prove to be extremely effective. 

 

We are talking here of the underprivileged people, but we often tend to forget that these underprivileged people are the ones who come up with unique and creative solutions to the different problems they face in their day-to-day lives. We see in rural areas that; When children are not able to afford a notebook, they use the blank spaces in a newspaper to write their notes, if they do not have a proper bat, they play with a cloth washing paddle. When they are not able to find stumps for playing cricket, they play using branches as wickets. They have equal potential and will no doubt utilise the opportunities they get. All we need to do is to take measures for their growth and ensure that these measures are being implemented properly.