Digital Divide

A Detailed Document on Digital Divide Influence On The Indian Scenario

Name : R.GayatriAddress: D/o. R. Srinivas Rao,

D.no:24-2-69, Dangidi street, Parvathipuram, Vizianagaram dist.

Pincode: 535501Email : rgayatri2010@gmail.comMbl.no :7306590270

By:

R. GayatriMBF(FT), Andhra University

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Contents

1.Introduction

2.Dimensions Of Digital Divide

3.Initiatives of Bridging The Digital divide in India

4.ICTs & Nature Of Digital Divide

5.The Technology Gap between The Rich and Poor

6.Reason For Digital Divide in India

7.Problems of Digital Divide

8. Obstacles to overcoming the global digital divide

9.Social Implications of Digital Divide

10.Challenges of Digital Divide

11.Conclusion

Introduction

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Digital divide is a term that refers to the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology, and those that don't or have restricted access. This technology can include the telephone, television, personal computers and the Internet.

The phase “Digital Divide” has been applied to the gap that exists in most Countries between those with ready access to the tools of information and communication technology and the knowledge that they provide access to and those without such access skills. A further gap between the developed and under developed world in the uptake of technology is evident with in the global community and may be of even greater significant. The relevance of these strategies to developing countries and strategies for reducing the international digital divide are also explored. The phenomenon of digital discrimination prevailing among various social, political and working groups has led to the emergence of digital information rich and digital information poor groups within societies and perhaps in the global environment.

Existing studies reveals, the gap that exists between those who have access to ICTs and those who do not create exclusion, endanger social integration and hamper economic growth. The digital divide had many dimensions and can be categorized as Global,Regional and National. At National level ther is no single divid, but multiple divides: forinstance ; within countries, between men and women, young and elderly, Rich and The poor and most importantly rural and urban. The present parer is focused on India and tries to explore problem of digital divide mainly in rural-urban India.

The digital divide has many dimensions and can be categorized as global, regional and national. At national level, there is no single divide, but multiple divides: for instance; within countries, between men and women, young and elderly, rich and poor and most importantly rural and urban. The present paper is mainly focused on India and tries to explore problem of digital divide mainly in rural-urban India.

Dimensions of Digital Divide

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The word “divide” suggests a significant barrier, one on a massive scale and hard to shift as in “continental divide” or “great divide”. Digital divide is emphasized much on digital divide issues of hard work, technical infrastructure and connectivity loom large but these are not the only dimension of the digital divide. Success in the internet economy provide a classification that is strongly oriented to technological and economic dimensions such as-

ConnectivityIt is suggested that the following dimensions which modify, can be identified on the

basis of barriers and their effects as described in literature but they don’t start with the letter c- not only the telecommunications infrastructure but also availability of state of the art , work state peripheral equipment and software. Access to all these by the general population, not merely technology for rural and disadvantaged communities.

CapacitySufficient trained IT professionals to install and maintain h/w, s/w and networks.

Professional information workers those who are belongs to education and professional associations of IT and library information professionals.

ContentContent not only means from the developed but also from the country it and

communities in vernacular language relevant to national and local issue are as far as concerned.

Community:Client base depends on literacy rate and level or groups, including rural

communities ,women ,children and elderly persons with disabilities.

Finance :Capital for investment in infrastructure and implementation ongoing revenue for

sustainability of systems. Legislation and regularly bodies impacting on telecommunications, the flow of content, e-commerce, availability of foreign currency, funds between levels of govt. budgetary constraints, producers, competitions, non-govt. organization etc

Policy frame work:National information policies, IT, knowledge society, e-govt., technology transfer,

rural transfer, etc. Moral and ethical framework, issues of information sovereignty versus information media and cultural hegemony of the powerful western industrialized nations, use of economic power to force principals of market capitalism on small economies.

Digital inclusion integrated in Social service:

The imperative comprehensive digital inclusion strategies is not solely tried to economic issues but also government agency their own e-govt. intiative to improve citizen services and optimized operational efficiency. As a result a growing number of services are being offered to the public online these include

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Financial assistance

Food Assistance

Training Opportunities

Recreational facilities and programme.

INITIATIVES OF BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN INDIA

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Kissan call centre

The dept. of Agriculture and co-operation (DAC) ministry of agriculture govt. of India launched Kissan call centres of Jan 21,2004, , across the country to deliver extension services. All the queries related to agriculture and allied sectors are being addressed through these call centres by making a single call the farmers reaches an agriculture graduate or expert who would be to respond to his queries and problems instantly. These services would be available round the clock.

Life Line India

It is a charitable organization working to promote human rights and sustainable development across the globe to explore ideas for a telephone based information service to enable farmers to record a question and after retrieve a recorded reply. By engaged with cisco to co-sponsor the initiative. Life lines India launched in nov.2006. This solution comprise a Cisco unified messaging platform incorporating integrated customer relationship management application and information dbs provided by BT. This coverage currently extends to 700 villages and the average of 350 calls to the service is being received each day. A database of frequently asked questions has been created. This is a vital service to deliver a prompt service to farmers, it is key to enabling service scalability and sustainability so that the overall caller satisfaction with the service is very high at 96% “Life line education” has being developed to extend to every villages by 2010. It is designed to provide the farming communities with access to expert advice on agriculture an animal husbandry problems. Life line India has provided the value of digital inclusion educating the rural users to use technology to access advice and learning to improve the further for their families and the local community.

Bhoomi Project

It is created in Karnataka states covers 66.6 millions of records of land ownership. This project has earned the good will of many people and also international funding agencies. Bhoomi centres are located all over the state. This project can also be used as a data bank of various projects of public and private sector organizations. The project has own 2002 common wealth association of public administration and management award for creating self content governance and opening up new fofronties with the success of Bhoomi project other states of India that tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have started evolving models based on Bhoomi in their respective states.

Gyanadoot project

Gyandoot is an internet in Dhar district connecting rural cyber cafes catering to the everyday needs of the masses. This web site of Gyandoot is extension of Gyandoot internet,

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for giving global access. Gyndoot is the 1st project in India for a rural information network in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh which has the highest percentage of tribes and dense forest.

To train common people to be computer literate “janshksha” public instruction centre have also been identified and policy is being formulated to bring IT to the common peoples need and benefit. Efforts are also being made by the govt to involve public libraries in this project. The project like Gyndoot at Dhar (MP), wired village at warana Ms swaminathan foundation’s project at Pondicherry, collect rate of Thiruvarur (Tamilnadu) project reported in (sotkhik Biswas 2001) have demonstrated these projects executed by the committed agencies have facilated in bridging the digital divide. These kind of projects demonstrate that rural consumers can and will benefit from connectivity. We find new educational and employment opportunities through this human mediated internet access projects.

TDIL Project

The depth of information technology initiate the TDIL(Technology Development for Indian Languages) with the aim of developing information processing tools and techniques to facilitate human machine interaction without resources and integrating them to develop modern user products and services.

Friends’ project

The fast, reliable instant efficient network for disbursement of services (FRIENDS) project has been launched by the state of Kerala in the southern part of the country with a view to-wards mitigating the hardship of citizens, playing taxes by eliminating middle man, delays and long queues. This project has expanded to serve 13 million people in 12 districts of Kerala. The philosophy of FRIENDS is to treat citizens as valued customers.

Similarly in Tamil Nadu a private outfit “N” louge offering low cost tele-solutions has worked wonders in Madurai district by using the local loop technology and making available fibre optic lines running across the district by helping private entrepreneurs run services including that of e-governce.

ICTs & Nature Of Digital Divide7

What is ICTs??

In the last decades, the world has begun to undergo a new technologically-driven revolution, allegedly leading toward what is commonly called “the Information Age.” Impelled by the phenomenal proliferation of computers and information devices, closely linked to an explosion of processing and access speeds, ever-lowering costs of memory and other critical components, convergence of images, sounds and writing in one digital medium, and propagated by a worldwide network of satellites and broadband fiber optic cables, this Information Age already is a reality to millions in all countries of the world. To be sure, this revolution is part of the long-term development of electronic communication technologies that includes: in the nineteenth century, the telegraph and telephone; in the mid-twentieth, broadcast media like radio and television; more recently, networks like Ernet in India or Ethernet in the U.S. But the last two decades have seen an explosive and unprecedented growth in these commonly called ‘information and communication technologies (ICTs).’

The revolution has been as dramatic, rapid, and far reaching as the agricultural revolution, the first industrial revolution (around factory production and the steam engine), and its sequel, based on the chemical and electrical industries. What is remarkable about the current ‘information technology’ revolution is the extraordinary rapidity of change it encapsulates. For example, it took at least a century before the printing press touched 50 million individuals. It took 38 years for radio to reach the same number, and thirteen years for television. But the World Wide Web, in only four years, exceeded the 50,000,000 mark. Never before has a communications revolution spread so rapidly.

Like all technological revolutions, this one has inspired optimistic hopes and fantasies. It is said that the ‘Digital Age’ has brought transparency of government, rationality of markets, universal access to information, the riches of the world’s many cultures for all, formation of new international communities, availability of life-and health-enhancing information to ordinary people throughout the world, and finally ,the blessings of democracy and prosperity for all the world’s six billion citizens.

Discrepancies in ICT access between the so-called “North” (industrialized and wealthy nations like the U.S., West Europe, and Japan) and the “South” (virtually all developing nations) are massive, overwhelming and apparently increasing. The nature of this “digital divide are of four digital divides that separate the information-rich and -poor -- that is, the divides between those included in and excluded from the Information Age.

Nature Of Digital Divides-The Four Digital Divides

The “digital divide” is widely regarded as a unitary phenomenon, it is useful to distinguish, in a general way, between the rich and powerful who are part of the Information Age and the poor and powerless who are not. But viewed analytically, there is not one, there are three digital divides -- and emerging in many nations a fourth.

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The first divide is that which exists within every nation, industrialized or developing , between those who are rich, educated, and powerful, and those who are not. For instance , income and education in the India distinguish dramatically between those who own computers and those who do not, as between those who can access the Internet and those who cannot.

Assuming three computer and Internet users per household, we arrive at a figure of six million Indians who have computer access at home and perhaps three million who have Internet access. (This compares with well over 70% household computer saturation and 60 % household Internet connection in the U.S. in 2002.) In India, then, in mid-2002, with a billion population, less than 1 % has home access to computers, and at most 0.5% of the population has home access to the Internet.

Who are the ‘connected’ in India? As a group, they are a small, rich, successful and English-speaking minority. For all of its ancient cultural wealth, despite the persistence of old elites and the emergence of new elites, India remains one of the world’s poorest societies. Details are known to all Indians and are available in any almanac: hundreds of millions go to bed hungry; more than 40% of the population are illiterate; tens of millions of children are not in school; as many as 50% of all Indian newborns are born below ideal birth weight; preventable diseases cause millions of deaths; and in many regions, corruption is widespread and stands in the way of well intentioned programs reaching their intended beneficiaries.

Telephone connectivity in India is about 3% and will not rise much above that level unless the cost of connections (the so called ‘last mile’ cost) can be lowered. The obstacles are economic, as notes in this volume: not much more than 3% of the Indian population can afford to pay the real costs of a new telephone line. This group is, by definition, the most affluent group in India, concentrated in the major cities where connections are most widely available. Despite the success of PCO/STD/ISD booths (manned pay phones) in cities and villages, and despite repeated government promises to provide telephone connections to all of India’s 700,000 villages, many Indian villages remain without any. As a result, most rural Indians have never made a telephone call. In short, there can be no doubt of a massive digital divide in India based on income, related to education and urban residence, and correlated with economic, political and cultural power.

A second digital divide, is linguistic and cultural. In many nations this divide separates those who speak English or another West European language .

It might be argued that these differences in the U.S. are the simple corollary of the income disparities between Americans of European or Asian origin and Americans of African or Hispanic origin. This inference is only correct in part. For example among American households with annual incomes below $35,000 (below the median), in 1998, Internet access among white and Asian American families was more than three times greater than among black or Hispanic families. Similarly, among college students, 80% of white students but only 40% of black students had Internet access. I know of no study that examines the ‘culture’ of American Web sites; but few sites in the U.S. specifically address the interests, concerns or assumptions of African Americans or Hispanic Americans, while most take for granted the prevailing outlook of the dominant, English-speaking ‘Anglo-Saxon’ culture.

These cultural disparities, dramatic in the US, are far more notable in India, where they are compounded by linguistic issues. An estimated 60-80% of all Web sites in the world are in English while almost all the rest are in one of the major ‘Northern’ languages like Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and increasingly Chinese. But in India, like the rest of

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South Asia, only an estimated 2-10% of the population speaks fluent English while the rest (more than 900 million Indians and about 1.2 billion South Asians) speak other languages.

For Indians who speak no (or little) English, the barriers to the Information Age are almost insuperable. All widely-used operating systems require some knowledge of English. Thus, in practice, unless Indians know English, which most Indians do not, no matter how wealthy, brilliant, educated, prosperous or motivated they may be, computer use and Internet access are effectively out of the question. The result is a self-confirming prophecy: since there is so little software in any language other than English, virtually everyone in India who uses computers knows English.

Of course the 50 or so million Indians who speak fluent English by no means constitute a representative sample of the Indian population: they again tend to be prosperous, urban, highly educated, concentrated in technical fields. They are, in a word, members of the Indian elite, where English is the lingua franca. For the great majority of Indians, however, computers are linguistically inaccessible and therefore useless

To linguistic inaccessibility in India is added the absence of culturally relevant content. The number of Web sites in 2000 in India is small in any case, but the number of sites in Indian languages is miniscule. To be sure, a few gifted programmers are attempting to change this, and sites are beginning to appear in languages with vast populations of mother tongue speakers like Hindi, Bengali or Tamil. But to all intents and purposes, the many, ancient, rich, and sophisticated cultures that make up India remain almost invisible on the Web. And absent good, low-cost Indian language software, the technical challenges of producing a Website in Telegu, Tamil or Hindi guarantee that these cultures will remain almost invisible. What is remarkable is that a handful of dedicated Indian programmers have actually begun to overcome these challenges.

Related to the digital divide that springs from wealth and power is a second divide related to the dominance of the English language and of what is loosely called ‘Anglo-Saxon culture. Or Hegemony

The third digital divide follows inevitably from the first two -- it is the growing digital gap between the rich and the poor nations. The 1999 United Nations Report on Human Development devotes much of a chapter to the widening gap between the information-rich nations of the North and the information-poor nations of the South. At one extreme are the United States and the ‘Nordic’ countries like Sweden, Germany, Finland, and Iceland, where household telephone connectivity is well over 90%, computer saturation is over 50%, and home-based Internet connectivity averages over 50%. At the other extreme lies most of Africa, most of South America, South Asia, China, Indonesia, and so on -- the 80% of the world where telephone connectivity is 3% or less (less than 30 million/1 billion in India), home computer ownership is 1 - 2% and Internet connectivity less than half of that.

The reason why the digital divide between nations is increasing seems clear. If widespread access to ICTs gives a nation an advantage, and lack of access leaves it at a disadvantage, then the maxim, “To those who have shall be given” applies with special force to the international digital divide. The international disparity in access to ICTs is of course an aspect of – indeed a reflection of – other disparities between rich and poor nations. But in sofar as ICTs are themselves enabling, facilitating, and wealth-creating, the international divide in information technology widens the already great gulf between North and South.

To these three digital divides we can add, in countries like India and America, yet a fourth: the emergence of a new elite group, which can be called the “digerati.” By “digerati” It means the beneficiaries of the enormous successful information technology industry and the other knowledge-based sectors of the economy such as biotechnology and pharmacology. for

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example, brilliant graduates of Indian Institutes of Technology or major engineering colleges and universities who chose to concentrate in the natural sciences, mechanical engineering or chemical engineering comment that their equally gifted classmates who entered computer science or biotechnology are now earning many times their incomes and living in an altogether different way.

Unlike older Indian elites, the privileges of the new digerati are based not on caste, inherited wealth, family connections or access to traditional rulers, but on a combination of education, brainpower, special entrepreneurial skills and ability to stay on the “cutting edge” of knowledge. The lifestyle of the digerati tends to be cosmopolitan: they provide the clientele for the boutiques, the coffeehouses, the travel agencies, the pubs, and the international airways that whisk them to vacations or assignments in Singapore, London, Zurich, Mauritius, San Jose or Kathmandhu. On the outskirts of Chennai, Poona, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad luxury apartments are rising to house this new group. Although initially concentrated in information technology, this new digerati are also found, to varying degrees, in the biotech, pharmaceutical and other high-tech areas. In India, their salaries are still relatively low by Western standards, but, with annual salary growth rates of over 20% for the last five or ten years, far above those of their otherwise equally educated classmates in India.

The critical question about the fourth digital divide, however, is whether the prosperity of this new digital elite spreads to the rest of society, especially to urban poor and to rural villagers, or whether it creates an increasingly separate, cosmopolitan, knowledge-based enclave. In India, in the immediate surround of the IT industry in cities like Bangalore, there are of course visible ancillary benefits to workers in supporting industries: to the builders of the new apartment buildings, the employees of the boutiques, coffee houses, and shops, the owners of the travel agencies the digerati patronize, and the drivers and servants whom they employ. But it is a long way from these IT-related enterprises to life in rural villages less than 100 km. away.

The point is that “the digital divide” is really at least four divides, all closely related. The first is internal, between the digitally empowered rich and the poor. This gap exists all over India, although the baselines differ. The second linguistic-cultural gap is largely between English and other languages, or more generally, between “Anglo-Saxon culture” and other world cultures. The third is the gap exacerbated by disparities in access to information technology between rich and poor nations. Finally, there is the emergent intra-national phenomenon of the “digerati”, an affluent elite characterized by skills appropriate to information-based industries and technologies, by growing affluence and influence unrelated to the traditional sources of elite status.

The Technology Gap between the Rich and Poor

Even as technology becomes more affordable and internet access seems increasingly ambiquitous, a “digital divide” between rich and poor remains. The rich and educated are still more likely than others to have good access to digital resources according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The digital divide has especially far-reaching consequences when it comes to education. For children in low-income school districts, inadequate access to technology can hinder them from learning the tech skills that are crucial to success in today’s economy.

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According to the 2012 Pew Report “Digital Differences,” only 62% of people in households making less than $30,000 a year used the internet, while in those making $50,000-74,999 that percentage jumped to 90.

Smart phones have helped bridge the divide, as they provide internet access to populations previously at a digital disadvantage. Pew reports that, among smart phone owners, “young adults, minorities, those with no college experience, and those with lower household income levels” are more likely to access the internet primarily through their phones.

There are still gaps in high-speed internet access. Only 49% of African Americans and 51% of Hispanics have high-speed internet at home, as compared with 66% of Caucasians. Internet speed has important effects on media access, especially when it comes to streaming video, so this gap is significant.

In a Pew survey of teachers, teachers of low income students tended to report more obstacles to using educational technology effectively than their peers in more affluent schools.

Among teachers in the highest income areas, 70% said their school gave them good support for incorporating technology into their teaching. Among teachers in the lowest income areas, that numbers was just 50%.

Fifty-six percent of teachers in low income schools say that their students’ inadequate access to technology is a “major challenge” for using technology as a teaching aid.

Fifty-four percent of all teachers said their students had adequate internet access at school, but only 18% said their students had adequate access at home. Interestingly, urban teachers are more likely to say students have poor access to internet at school, while rural teachers are more likely to report that students have poor access at home.

Reasons for digital divide in India

India has a population of over one billion, 70% living in villages. The adult literacy rate is about 82% and female literacy rate is about 65.46% as on 2011.

Barrier of Digital Divide in Indian Scenario

Low Literacy Rate

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As per 2011 population census of India the literacy rate of India has shown as improvement at 74%. It shows male literacy rate 82.14%and female literacy is 65.46 % Kerala with 93.91% is the top literacy rate in India. When literacy rate in urban and rural areas there is a difference in the literacy rate which in turn creates a hurdle for digital divide.

Education SystemOne of the biggest challenges which face Indian education is the number of dropouts

at the undergraduate level.In order to overcome the digital divide it is necessary that the information technology aspect should be introduced to the students right from their school level and the need for the same is been identified by the Indian govt recently. The govt has introduced the IT in the syllabus right from 1st standards so that the students will come to know various strategies of searching the Internet.

LanguageFor Indians who speak no English the barriers to the information age are inseparable.

Thus in practice unless Indian know English which most Indian do not, no matter how be computer use and internet access are effectively.

Problems of Digital Divide

In this modern world marked by a growing need for information skills at all levels, including School University, workplace and ordinary life, similarly, there is an increase in outcries to bridge the digital divide. So the digital divide concerns much more information to increase the spectrum of skills we address, from an information retrieval skills, knowledge of seeking behavior and teaching on one hand, we therefore have an ICT environment and out cries for information skills concerns for description of the digital divide concerns the difference between those who have access to information (the have’s) and those who do not have access to information. It is generally assumed that such diversity might impact on their ability to function in the changing environment and to proper. At university level it has been found that even if students are offered access to ICT and the opportunity to build computer and information literacy skills, that stills seems to be a divide when putting these skills to use.

Obstacles to overcoming the global digital divide

Some people argue that basic necessities need to be considered before achieving digital inclusion, such as an ample food supply and quality health care. Minimizing the global digital divide requires considering and addressing the following types of access:

Physical AccessInvolves, “the distribution of ICT device per capita..and lines per thousand”. Individuals

need to obtain access to computers, landlines, and networks in order to access the Internet.

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This access barrier is also addressed in Article 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the United Nations.

Financial AccessThe cost of ICT devices, traffic, applications, technician and educator training,

software, maintenance and infrastructures require ongoing financial means.

Socio-demographic AccessEmpirical tests have identified that several socio-demographic characteristics foster or

limit ICT access and usage. Among different countries, educational levels and income are the most powerful explanatory variables, with age being a third one. Others, like gender, don't seem to have much of an independent effect.

Cognitive AccessIn order to use computer technology, a certain level of information literacy is needed.

Further challenges include information overload and the ability to find and use reliable information.

Design Access

Computers need to be accessible to individuals with different learning and physical abilities including complying with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 in the United States.

Institutional AccessIn illustrating institutional access, Wilson states "the numbers of users are greatly

affected by whether access is offered only through individual homes or whether it is offered through schools, community centers, religious institutions, cybercafés, or post offices, especially in poor countries where computer access at work or home is highly limited".

Political AccessGuillen & Suarez argue that that "democratic political regimes enable a faster growth

of the Internet than authoritarian or totalitarian regimes".[30]:687 The Internet is considered a form of e-democracy and attempting to control what citizens can or cannot view is in contradiction to this. Recently situations in Iran and China have denied people the ability to access certain website and disseminate information. Iran has also prohibited the use of high-speed Internet in the country and has removed many satellite dishes in order to prevent the influence of western culture, such as music and television.

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Cultural AccessMany experts claim that bridging the digital divide is not sufficient and that the images

and language needed to be conveyed in a language and images that can be read across different cultural lines.

Societal implications of digital divideThe digital divide has severe implications on the society, if not addressed properly.

The factors that have influence in addressing digital divide include:

Computer literacy: Those who can operate computers stand a better chance than those who cannot, though literate and otherwise competent, to get even a secretarial job let alone an administrative one.

Use of electronic data interchange (EDI): An export company from a country that cannot use e-commerce over the Internet, may lose a large export order to another company from a different country that has collected more informa-tion through the Internet and submitted quotations through EDI. Singapore has announced that it will not trade with any company that cannot transact with it in paperless EDI mode over a computer network. If many other coun-tries follow the suite, it results in a Global digital divide. As a consequence, exports may grind to a halt for a country just because its companies cannot transact in EDI over a network.

Tech savvy operations: Those who know how to operate automated teller machine can draw money faster and those who cannot operate need to spend more time at manual counters.

Use of information: The cruelest blow is inflicted because of urban–rural divide. It may be exploited by the unscrupulous because of information that urbanite may be privy to while others may not.

Working knowledge of English: Internet hosts more than 80% of the Web pages in English though only 54% of the Internet users are amongst English-speaking people. In India and other developing countries, the disparity is much wider, resulting in a language divide.

Even within advanced countries, concerns are there about divides along racial and gender lines. In fact, digital divide is an amplifier of economic and social divides that exists universally. The only saving grace is in converting digital divide into digital dividend to mitigate the prevailing economic and social disparities.

Challenges of Digital divide15

The challenge of libraries with respects of digital divide is to pro-active in bridging the digital divide paradigm and justify the role of library and information society. But in reality the challenge of digital divide specifically interest the vision and the very existence of libraries- more over libraries have already been digital divide problem and issues .Secondly –when policy decisions are drafted relating to information library professionals should also be part of the committee to reflect the options of the library community

In these circumstances the library professionals should quickly position themselves to provide the needed inputs to the policy makers. At the least they should be positioned in such way that they can convince the policy maker

Conclusion

Increasing the effectiveness of rural development programs is a complex task. The administration has to be energized to face up to the challenge. The rural poor need to be educated and organized. In all these areas, information and communication technology can play a supportive role. Clearly improved literacy can have a lasting impact on rural poverty. A major stumbling block is the poor quality of governance and lack of participation by the poor in governance. The only way this can be improved is through a greater sharing of information and better communication amongst the concerned stakeholders.The unequal access to information and communication technologies has led to the digital divide not only in developing countries but globally as well. Although India has made encouraging efforts to bridge the gap by initiating a number of projects and programmes for rural and remote locations, a lot more needs to be done to bring the people into the information society. All that is required is strong determination among people, good policy–makers and political support to bridge the digital divide. Information centres have a special role in providing

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information to all in order to reduce the gap between those who have the facilities to access digital information and those who do not.

All this is feasible. India has the technical know how, the technology to do it, and the economic and institutional strategies to implement it. There would surely be successes and failures. But with the efforts of individuals, private organizations and the Indian Government, some progress is sure to be made and hopefully that would bridge the digital divide in India. It would take some time to educate the common man and then introduce information technology in their lives, but there is surely a very strong indication that India will become an information technology super power in the true sense in the near future.

“It is dangerously destabilizing to have half the world on the cutting edge of technology while the other half struggles on the bare edge of survival”.

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