The digital divide implies the gap among those who have access
to digital technologies and those who do not have such access. The term assumes
that such an access differential leads to social disparities owing to the differences
in the benefit bestowed upon those who use this technology and those who do not
use it. The digital divide is not merely a concern for developing countries even
it’s a reality for developed countries of the world as well. This occurrence
has been gaining attention worldwide for digitally-enabled social policies and
planning. The Indian government’s ambitious project, ‘Digital India’, would be a
reality only if it includes the neglected section of the society.

What is the digital divide?

There are various definitions of the term ‘Digital Divide’.

Bharat Mehra defines it as “the troubling gap between those who use
computers and the internet and those who do not”

United State National Telecommunication and Information Administration
(NTIA), digital divide refers to the gap between those who do not and those
who does have access to computers and the internet? During the process the notion
of a digital divide and its logical implications, social problems can be
addressed through provisions of computers and internet accounts have seemed
increasingly problematic.

The digital divide is becoming more and more conspicuous the term in this IT world, the digital divide is not only confined to developed
countries but now these days it is over phrased which is used in developing
countries also. The digital divide is a term that was mostly used by the
developed countries of the west, but now it is emerging in the developing
countries also like in India and China. The Industrial Revolution divided the
world into two large blocks, while the industrialized countries amassed
significant wealth and power, those countries that we’re unable to change their
pre-industrial forms of production experienced mounting economic and social
problems. Starting in the industrialized countries, the ICT revolution seems to
be perpetuating this divide (Swalehin, 2011, pp, 181-182).

Social inequality stems from
wealth, prestige, and power in Indian society like other societies since time
immemorial. Knowledge is an added dimension of the source of social inequality in
an era of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and globalization. ICT
is assumed to superimpose the digital divide on the traditional one. C.E Shannon
has pointed out that information may be treated very much like a physical
quantity, viz, mass or energy. In 1953, Daniel Bell predicted that information
would succeed the raw materials, natural resources, and energy as a commodity.
It has taken many decades to realize that the new wealth is neither money nor
power but information and knowledge

LEVEL OF DIGITAL DIVIDE:

There are several levels of the digital divide which make a clear sense of the digital divide in our society.

1) Access to the Internet:

ICTs first make a gap between those who can access the internet
and those who cannot access it. This divide also indicates Karl Marx’s “Have and
Have’s not” theory.  A rich person has
equipped with more and latest technology. But the poor have not able to buy a new ICT
device.

The same as a developed nation use ICTs more than under developing
nation and poor nation. The U.S.A. has an internet penetration rate of 85.8% as
compared to India which has 50.2% penetration rate.

2) Content of Information:

This means information available about any particular topic. The Internet is full of garbage information. We cannot find out whole information
about any topic. We also cannot find out depth information.  Because most bloggers have not well and
depth knowledge of the subject.

i.e. We can easily find out information from a general
perspective but cannot find specific knowledge.

3) Paid Information:

We have access to many websites for any kind of information. But
we have only a little information that is useful for us. There are many websites
that provide well information instant of money. Many professions like Blogging,
Streaming, Vlogging etc, valuable data provided by this.

4) Speed of internet:

Internet speed is not the same everywhere.  The developed nation has well-developed
communication infrastructure for high-speed internet. But in under developing
and less develop nation’s net speed slow as compare. Today world move towards
5G technology but there are still some countries that not have basic internet
facilities. Even in the India Hill area, tribal, rural, remote areas have very slow
internet connectivity.

Internet speed of India is 6.8 Mbps/s, which is very low as
compare to the USA (21.3 Mbps), UK (21.7 Mbps), Australia (37.4 Mbps) Canada (42.5
Mbps) Norway (48.2 Mbps), South Korea (52.4 Mbps).

The Information Age:

Kenneth Keniston & Deepak Kumar (2004) analyze that in
the last few decades, the world has begun to undergo, new technology-driven
revolution, allegedly leading towards what is commonly called “The information
Age”. In this chapter of his book he has pointed out the four digital divides,
which all are closely related.

 The first is
internet, between the digitally empowered rich and the poor. This gap exists in
both: the north as well as the south, although the baseline differs.

The second linguistic-cultural gap is large 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 intranational phenomenon of
the “digerati” an affluent elite characterized by skills appropriate
for information-based industries and technologies, by growing affluence
unrelated to the traditional sources of elite status and by obsessive focus,
especially among young people, on cutting edge technologies, regard for
convention and authority, and indifference to the values related to
traditional hierarchies (Keniston, 2004, pp, 11-20).

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