Unraveling the Digital Mirage: Assessing the Efficacy of Rural India’s Digitalization Strategy

With the world’s largest population, India has a significant rural population comprising 65% of its total. The Government of India is constantly trying to enable the population to enjoy the digital advantage. This paper attempts to evaluate the effectiveness and pitfalls of various schemes for the digital empowerment of rural folk in India. The Indian IT professionals, who design and develop software systems, hail mainly from upper-middle-class families and are more inclined to Western culture. Their ignorance of the rural population’s level of technological familiarity, compounded by the implementation of digitalization policies without considering the digital limitations of large illiterate groups, exacerbates the digital divide. The Universal Design approach adopted for the portals and mobiles meant for rural communities has overlooked whether they are novice, intermediate, or expert users, resulting in information overload on the pages and disuse. The current practices of digitalizing products and services for rural folk tend to widen the digital divide.