Bridging the Gender Digital Divide : Daily Current Affairs

Date: 28/10/2022

Relevance: GS-1: Women Empowerment and related Issues.

Relevance: GS-2: Education and Skill Development.

Key Phrases: Digital Literacy, Digital Divide, Literacy Gap, Gender Disparity, Periodic Labour Force Survey, NSO, Women Empowerment, Workforce, Unemployment Rate, Strategy for New India @75, National Family Health Survey 5, Digital technology, Digital Skill.

Context:

A recent digital literacy programme in rural Uttar Pradesh shows that eliminating gender disparity in digital literacy can work wonders for the inclusion of women in the workforce.

Key Highlights:

In urban areas, digital literacy is relatively higher at 61% relative to just 25% in rural areas.
The NITI Aayog Report titled "Strategy for New India @75" indicates that India needs to eliminate the Digital Divide by 2022-23.
The National Family Health Survey-5 2019-2021 reports only one in three women in India have ever used the internet, compared to more than half our men.

Digital Literacy

Digital literacy refers to an individual's ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information through typing and other media on various digital platforms.

TARA WE ADD

This programme was implemented by civil society organization Development Alternatives in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh earlier this year.
It aims to digitally literate rural women with a low educational and low-income background and connect existing/potential micro-entrepreneurs with digital platforms that lead to income enhancement.
It has trained 814 rural women with low educational and low-income backgrounds in digital literacy.

Benefits of Digital Literacy:

Growth in Income and Livelihood opportunity:
- It increases and promotes business and helps to learn new ways of earning money by using the digital medium.
Increase Female Work Participation Rate:
- It is significant given India’s female work participation rate at 25 per cent in 2020-21, is among the lowest for emerging economies.
Changes Women’s Perception:
- Acquisition of digital skills changes women’s perception of the role digital technology can play in optimizing their income-generation.
Improves work practice and prospect:
- Attainment of digital skills improves work practices and prospects.
- It improves women’s safety and self-reliance by using smart devices.

Periodic Labour Force Survey

National Statistical Office (NSO) launched the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017.
Objective:
- To estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the ‘Current Weekly Status’ (CWS).
- To estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both ‘Usual Status’ (ps+ss) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.
Terminology:
- Labour Force Participation Rate:
  - LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
- Unemployment Rate:
  - UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.
- Worker Population Ratio (WPR):
  - WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
- Activity Status- Usual Status:
  - The activity status of a person is determined on the basis of the activities pursued by the person during the specified reference period.
  - When the activity status is determined on the basis of the reference period of the last 365 days preceding the date of survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the person.
- Activity Status- Current Weekly Status (CWS):
  - The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of last 7 days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.
- Principal activity status:
  - The activity status on which a person spent relatively long time (major time criterion) during 365 days preceding the date of survey, was considered the usual principal activity status of the person.
- Subsidiary economic activity status:
  - The activity status in which a person in addition to his/her usual principal status, performs some economic activity for 30 days or more for the reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey, was considered the subsidiary economic status of the person.
Key Highlights of Annual PLFS 2020-21:
- Overall unemployment rate as per usual status (reference period of last 365 days preceding the survey), eased to 4.2% from 4.8% in 2019-20.
- The labour force participation rate (LFPR) was the highest in four years at 39.3 per cent in 2020-21.
- Employment in the unpaid self-employed category continued to show an increase in 2020-21 by rising to 17.3% from 15.9% in 2019-20.

Constraints in Digital Literacy:

Digital Divide:
- The key problem surrounding remote learning and online classes in the country is the issue of equitable access.
Literacy Gap:
- Along with a prevalent urban-rural divide, there also exists a deepening male-female digital literacy gap in India

Initiatives by Government:

Two Schemes titled “National Digital Literacy Mission” and “Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” were implemented with a target to train 52.50 lakh candidates in digital literacy across the country.
- Under these two schemes, a total of 53.67 lakh beneficiaries were certified.
In 2017, “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)” was approved by the Union Cabinet to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 crore rural households (one person per household).
- So far, a total of around 5.78 crore candidates have been enrolled and 4.90 crore have been trained.

Way Forward:

Digital literacy is both an international and local issue. Countries and regions will require tailored approaches to meet their unique needs.
Effective strategies to address digital literacy will require public and private investments in digital infrastructure, policy and governance frameworks, and training in the use of digital technologies.
Build partnerships based on common values and goals, but distinctive capabilities.
Engage champions in the community to increase the initiative’s scale and deepen its impact.

Conclusion:

Accessing technologies and the proper digital skills will be critical for countries’ development, security, and inclusion and sustainable development goal 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure; target: universal and affordable access to the internet by 2020) and goal 5 (Gender equality; target: enabling technology to promote women empowerment).

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q.“Bridging the gender digital divide has potential to change the status of women’s participation in the workforce”. Comment (150 Words).