People must be made aware of cyber traps

In a rush to expand digital literacy, don’ t forget to put equal stress on Internet safety

India’s digital divide continues to be embarrassingly wide. While the overall Internet penetration is 33%, it is only 16% in the rural areas, said a report released last week. According to the Cellular Operators’ Association of India IMC-Deloitte report, India ranks 36th globally in Internet inclusion based on availability, affordability, relevance and readiness. The report also noted Net Neutrality as a continuous area of debate. It also underlined the need to define the regulatory guidelines towards new emerging technologies which are giving rise to new use cases.

To overcome the digital divide, the NDA launched the Digital India programme, which targets to train 60 million people in rural areas. It has two schemes to promote digital literacy — national digital literacy mission and digital saksharta abhiyan. Even the private sector has been chipping in: Technology companies with interest in user data have been trying to teach rural Indians, especially women and the unlettered, the basics of Internet. The push for digital literacy can work far better if there is an equal or much more stress on literacy as a whole. This is because literate people will seamlessly move to cyber world for the vast resources it provides at a user’s disposal.

The challenge for the government, however, is not just expanding the base of digital literate people; it’s also about how to teaching them the basics of safe Internet use. This has been the focus in the developed world. For example, in Britain a committee has clearly said that digital literacy minus training in safety issues is unacceptable. They recommended that digital literacy must “sit alongside reading, writing and mathematics as the fourth pillar of education; and that no child should leave school without a well-rounded understanding of the digital world.” India must follow this not just in schools but also for adult/late entrants into the digital highway.