Model Gujarat's 'urban lag'? State's 41% households have internet access, as against all-India average of 49%

By Rajiv Shah
Gujarat may be claiming to have provided the widest internet coverage compared to the rest of India through the state-sponsored Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN). However, a recent Government of India survey shows that access to internet in the state’s urban areas is just to 41.3 per cent of its households, which is far below the national average of 48.7 per cent.
The neighbouring Maharashtra’s urban areas are way ahead of Gujarat with 64.6 per cent households having internet access. Similarly, in urban Kerala, 62.1 per cent households have internet access. Largely urban areas, Delhi’s 48.5 per cent, Goa’s 52.6 per cent, and Chandigarh’s 60.2 per cent have internet access.
The National Sample Survey (NSS) report, “Education in India”, based on samples taken in 2014, pointing towards a huge urban-rural internet divide across India, says, “Among the selected states, Chhattisgarh had the lowest percentage (2.5 per cent) of households having access to internet facility.”
As against this, the NSS report says, “In Kerala, more than half of the rural households had internet access.” While the national average is 16.1 per cent, 17.1 per cent rural households of Gujarat have internet access.
If one leaves aside household access to internet, the question still remains: How computer literate is "model" Gujarat's population? The NSS data show that just about 24.3 per cent of Gujarat's urban population in the age group 14 plus can use internet to send emails, which is worse than the all-India average of 25.4 per cent.

There are ten states which perform better than Gujarat -- Himachal Pradesh (37.9 per cent), Uttarakhand (33.2 per cent), Maharashtra (33.1 per cent), Kerala (32.5 per cent), Punjab (29.2 per cent), Haryana (29 per cent), Karnataka (28 per cent), Telangana (27 per cent), Assam (26 per cent), and Tamil nadu (25.7 per cent).
A further detail suggests that Gujarat's 17.5 per cent urban females are able to use internet to send emails, which is again worse than the national average of 19.3 per cent. Then, just about 3.8 per cent of Gujarat's rural females are able to use internet to send emails, which is worse than the all-India average of 3.9 per cent.
Published in March 2016, the NSS survey also reveals that, in Gujarat, 14.6 per cent people (urban plus rural) above 14 years of age can use internet in order to send emails. While this a slightly better than the all-India average of 12.4 per cent, it is worse than as many as nine out of 21 major Indian states.
If Kerala, with 27.2 per cent of the people in the age-group 14 plus able to use internet to send email, tops among major Indian states, Maharashtra with 20.4 per cent comes next, followed by Tamil Nadu 18.8 per cent, Himachal Pradesh 18.3 per cent, Punjab 17.9 per cent, Uttarakhand 16.1 per cent, Telangana 15.5 per cent, Haryana 15.4 per cent, and Karnataka 15 per cent.
Further, in the age-group 14-29, 34.6 per cent of the people are able to operate a computer, as against 27.8 per cent in the country as a whole. This is worse than seven major states -- Kerala (77.3 per cent), Tamil Nadu (49.6 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (45.5 per cent), Punjab (45 per cent), Maharashtra (40.1 per cent), Haryana (36.3 per cent), and Karnataka (35.5 per cent).

Comments

India failing to dictate diplomatic preferences of Nepal, Bhutan, is unfairly blaming Beijing: Chinese daily

By Our Representative
In a sharply-worded editorial, a top Chinese media outfit, described by BBC as state-run, has said, commenting on India's foreign relations with its neighbours, that "speculation and suspicion" is "certainly not diplomacy". Published in "China Daily", the largest circulating English Monday-to-Saturday newspaper with branches across the world, the editorial notes (September 20) that "several recent events" in Nepal and Bhutan, are "gnawing worrywarts in New Delhi".
The editorial -- which comes close on the heels of a sharp critique of India's foreign policy in a state-supported Russian media outfit, Sputnik International, calling India's anti-Pak diplomacy as having "gone awry" following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "half-baked" push for anti-terror drill down "others' throat" -- says, the " worrywarts" include "Nepalese troops taking part in a joint…

Ahmedabad, GIFT, Adani city get 1.68 lakh acre ft Narmada water; Gujarat's rural areas just 4.27 AF: Letter to CM

Counterview Desk
Well-known farmer rights leader Sagar Rabari, in an open letter to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, has demanded a transparent account of Narmada water, saying, while he has received a "routine reply" from him to his earlier, the data emerging from his RTI application show huge quantity of water being directed to Ahmedabad, the 10 km stretch of Sabarmati for the Ahmedabad riverfront, and nearby elite urban areas, including the Adanis' Shantigram township and GIFT City.

Gujarat BJP MLAs, youth leader "incited" attack on North Indians: Cong releases video

Counterview Desk
Senior Gujarat Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil, currently in charge of Bihar and national spokesperson, All-India Congress Committee, has sent a legal notice to chief minister Vijay Rupani threatening criminal case and civil defamation suit for accusing him with "baseless statement" that he was responsible for attacks on north Indians in Gujarat.

Ethnocide in Caribbean island filmed following award winning docufilm on Jamaica's anti-colonial Indian roots

International awards winner for Best Feature Documentary Linda Aïnouche for “Dreadlocks Story” (2014), which shows how Indians are entangled in the Jamaican society, and how Hinduism was a source of inspiration for the Rastafari movement, is all set to release her new documentary, “Marooned in the Caribbean”, which aims at documenting the awful desolating living conditions that Raizal people, the native inhabitants of San Andres Archipelago, endure.
Sons of slaves, these islanders have fallen prey to what the Colombian government calls Colombianization. “It’s a process”, according to her, “which kills the Raizal culture; it’s the killing of the Raizal soul. Colombianization subjugates Afro-descendants of San Andres to an ethnocide.”
Explorer, director and producer, Linda Aïnouche writes exclusively for Counterview: ***
Nobody escapes from blood and thunder in Colombia, and definitely not in the archipelago of San Andres, situated closer to Managua and Kingston than Bogota. The Raizal p…

17 lakh Jharkhand elderly, widows, differently abled do not receive pension: Public hearing told, aadhaar is a hurdle

By Our Representative
Hundreds of elderly, widows, single women and differently-abled persons from different districts of Jharkhand gathered near the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi for a public hearing organized by the Jharkhand Right to Food Campaign and Pension Parishad demanding the right to universal social security pensions ahead of World Elderly Day on October 1.

Accused of being RSS plant, Modi man, Hyderabad Urdu varsity chancellor asks President to probe "irregularities"

Counterview Desk
Refused entry in the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), the central university's newly appointed chancellor Firoz Bakht Ahmed, who claims to be grand nephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, has, in a letter to the President of India, said that MANUU vice-chancellor (V-C) Dr Aslam Parvaiz has accused him of being an RSS plant and a Modi man, whose sole aim is to "interfere in the working of the university".

India to deport Rohingya refugees, as the world moves towards prosecuting Myanmar for genocide

By Tapan Bose*
Seven Rohingya Muslims refugees who were held at a detention centre in Assam since 2012 will be handed over to Myanmar. The Supreme Court of India has refused to stop their deportation. The new Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gagoi said, "We are not inclined to interfere on the decision taken".

An elite Kutir set up by Modi far from the "madding" crowd: This Gandhi museum is formal, unapproachable

By Rajiv Shah
Have you ever heard of a Gandhi museum, sough to be projected as the “largest” on the Mahatma, yet totally inaccessible, in sharp contrast to Ahmedabad’s humble, approachable and unassuming Gandhi Ashram on the banks of Sabarmati, set up by the Mahatma during the heydays of the freedom movement? It exists about 30 kilometres away, its idea was conceived by none other than a person who has today become even more inaccessible than he ever was: Narendra Modi, India's Prime Minister.

History less known: Kasturba's role as an independent woman and a freedom fighter in her own right

By Nandini Oza*
Even the most deserving of women do not find a place that equals their worth in history. Kasturba is one such woman whose contribution to India’s struggle for freedom has been exemplary, and yet, it has not received the recognition it deserves. Kastur Makhanji Kapadia was born in the year 1869, the same year and in the same town of Porbandar in Gujarat as Gandhiji. In fact she was older than Gandhiji by a few months.

Post-MJ Akbar resignation: #MeToo movement and fears of backlash

By Sheshu Babu*
For the last few days, #MeToo movement has picked up momentum and many women are coming out with horrific tales of severe harassment in their past lives. They are not afraid anymore to expose famous persons including those at ministerial levels. As a senior journalist Neeraja Chowdhury opined (“An exit, a beginning”, October 18, 2018, indianexpress.com), "The #MeToo revelations are like the eruption of a volcano which was imminent, given the journey working women have covered. It was not easy to make public what they had gone through,and take on powerful men.”

Counterview

Search This Blog