Consider a farmer on a farm in rural Maharashtra who checks price information of his/her crop in real-time, or a young girl in Bihar who can access classes in her house. The once unimaginable situations have started turning into a reality due to technology. But is tech going to change the face of rural India really?
Connecting Villages: The Internet Revolution
Ten years back, there is poor internet connectivity in rural India, hence making economic growth and education a serious limitation. However, projects such as BharatNet have transformed this scenario in a massive way. BharatNet is expected to connect more than 250000 villages in India with broadband. As of mid-2023, about 195,000 villages were already connected which has hugely boosted internet penetration. Last year when I was in a village in Odisha I could personally witness the change in the lives of the people courtesy the broadband connectivity. Through weather forecasts, farmers were able to access timely forecast and improved the productivity of crops by approximately 20 per cent. Online sales of hand crafted artefacts by women artisans was discussed in the sense that they could be sold directly to the urban customers. Younger generation took online classes in high ranking educational institutions. Evidently, connectivity is not entirely about convenience, instead, it has a way of empowering people. You can learn more about these transformative stories by exploring detailed reports right here.
Mobile Technology: Empowering Farmers
Did you know that India has more than 600 million smart phone users and a high percentage of them are in the rural locations? The mobile technology significantly enhanced the capabilities of Indian farmers and led to the increase of their income and productivity. Applications such as mKisan and Kisan Suvidha tend to offer up-to-date information on the climate, product prices, and agricultural methods. I had an interview with Manoj, one of the rice farmers in Haryana who checked these apps on a daily basis. He informed me how accurate weather forecasts shaved sudden rains off his crops, which saved him thousands of rupees on a yearly basis. The rural farmers also get an easy time in accessing loans and crop insurance as they can do with mobile based financial tools. UPI payments eliminate will automatically make any transaction cashless and more transparent, an aspect that will facilitate the elimination of corruption. In fact, mobile technology is ensuring long term gains in the agricultural sector of the rural areas, thus demonstrating its vitality in the process of closing the digital divide. For insights into specific agricultural apps transforming rural lives, click here.
E-learning in Rural Classrooms
Perhaps no one has benefited more of India tech revolution in the rural areas than education. E-learning programs have brought quality education even in the farthest villages. Such platforms as Diksha and SWAYAM provide free courses in various languages, which greatly limits the educational inequality. I was doing my fieldwork in one of the Uttarakhand villages last year, where teachers told me about how e-learning increased attendance and performance. Videos that allowed interaction and online quizzes made the educational process highly engaging, so the dropout level was minimized significantly. Educational content loaded in the tablets gave students access even during lockdowns. The rural education which had traditionally had a massive digital gap is gradually filling the gap. Challenges are still there, however, such as stable electricity and less expensive devices. The consequences of these barriers can be addressed by government support (in form of subsidies) and government intervention (in form of collaborations between the government and the private sector) and e-learning could become somewhat truly inclusive then. Discover more details on these educational platforms here.
Telemedicine: Bringing Healthcare Home
Reaching healthcare in rural India means traveling long distances, spending a lot of money, and missing a day of work. The discovery of telemedicine has become a game changer. Online consultation platforms such as eSanjeevani have helped achieve more than 120 million online consultations in India since the inception of these platforms. In the recent visit to rural Tamil Nadu, I came across a pregnant woman who could visit her doctor regularly through video calls. She told about how the telemedicine has saved her hours of tough traveling and also made her receive regular prenatal care. Other than consultations, telemedicine platforms support prescription services, remote diagnostics services and health awareness programs. VILLAGES have their own digital health kiosks that are able to give diagnostic tests, bringing a big improvement to the local healthcare infrastructure. However, to get the most out of it, rural societies still require better access to the internet and knowledge regarding the efficacy of telemedicine. Rural healthcare would also improve through resolving these problems. More about telemedicine in rural India can be found here.
Building Digital Literacy for Lasting Change
Digitizing the rural community is not enough to produce a lasting change but also digital literacy. Communities, unless they have training, are unable to exploit the full benefits of tech. The Indian government and the non-governmental organizations have introduced many digital literacy programs to see this. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) itself has educated more than 60 million village people on digital essence. In Jharkhand, where I did volunteer work, I had a chance to see how villages were empowered through training activities. The aged people of the village were using smart phones confidently, young girls were training themselves in selling their goods online and the local children were going over the online job sites. Digital skills are readily applicable at the workplace and hence these programs can help in a big way and are truly transformational in the context of technology. However, it is essential to scale up digital literacy projects and cover all communities that live in rural areas. The second promising direction to reduce this gap is to create additional funding, effective training models, and targeted outreach, which will be able to narrow this gap in the long-term strategic way. Check out ongoing digital literacy programs here.
Conclusion
There is major transformation of rural India by means of technology which presents outstanding opportunities in the field of agriculture, education, healthcare, and economic activities. In its bid to close the rural-urban divide, India is slowly doing so by enhancing internet connection, mobilizing mobile technology, implementing e-learning, enhancing telemedicine, and boosting digital literacy. However, such issues as insufficiency of infrastructure, affordability of devices, and training opportunities exist. To adequately address them demands joint endeavors of the governments, individual firms as well as the communities on their own. Then again, it is not all about equipping and plugging in – technology is about freeing and enabling people and providing real opportunities in rural prosperity. You can follow ongoing progress in rural tech initiatives here, ensuring that India’s tech revolution benefits everyone equally, leaving no village behind.
