Deepak Kumar | Smartphone skills growing as digital divide gets bridged across rural India

With India’s technological landscape undergoing a massive transformation, digital literacy has become an important determinant of opportunities in the 21st century, particularly in shaping the readiness of the country’s youth for future educational, economic, and social trajectories. This is reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.4, which aims to enhance youth and adult skills for employment and entrepreneurship by 2030, with specific indicators measuring ICT (4.4.1) and digital literacy proficiency (4.4.2).

Unicef’s Comprehensive Life Skills Framework similarly recognises digital skills as “foundational skills”, placing them alongside core competencies like literacy and numeracy. In India, the National Education Policy 2020 and Digital India mission represent crucial frameworks for addressing digital literacy. The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan (PMGDISHA) stands out as a flagship programme specifically designed to make one person in every rural family digitally literate.

Therefore, understanding youth’s digital readiness and capacity to leverage the emerging technological opportunities becomes crucial for India's future economic and social development. As mobile devices become increasingly affordable and Internet connectivity expands, rural youth in villages are increasingly engaging with the digital world.

The recently released Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2024) provides a nuanced picture of this transformation, highlighting both remarkable progress and challenges facing youth in rural communities. The digital component of ASER survey was first developed for the ASER 2023 survey focusing on “Beyond Basics”, that explored Internet access and assess digital literacy among rural youth aged 14-18. ASER 2023 surveyed 34,745 participants across 28 districts in 26 states across rural India.

The digital tasks were designed to be rapid, easy to administer, and engaging for youth. The assessment was designed for smartphones rather than computers, given the higher penetration of the former in rural communities. The findings provided an insightful picture of digital literacy among rural Indian youth, highlighting their digital engagement and skills. The ASER 2024 survey expanded this digital component for 14-16-year-olds by covering 605 districts in 26 states and two Union territories across rural India, providing a comprehensive insight on youth digital literacy. ASER 2024 reveals a significant digital transformation among rural Indian youth aged 14-16, highlighting widespread smartphone access with Internet connectivity and emerging digital skills. The report shows that a majority of rural youth (90%) have a smartphone at home, and around two-thirds of them could bring a smartphone with good connectivity to do the digital tasks.

A striking 82 per cent of youth reported knowing how to use smartphones, and among these 31 per cent own a personal device. As expected, males and older children report higher smartphone availability and ownership than females and young children. Among smartphone users, over 75 per cent reported engaging with social media during the last week of the survey, and 57 per cent utilised digital platforms for educational purposes. The report also shed light on digital safety awareness, revealing that while a greater number of youths reported social media usage, their understanding of online safety remains limited. Specifically, 62 per cent can block profiles, 55 per cent can set profile privacy, and 58 per cent know how to change passwords. The findings highlight an important observation: while digital safety knowledge is suboptimal with females being particularly vulnerable online, there is no gender disparity in education-related digital activities. In addition to the self-reported questionnaire, the ASER 2024 survey administered digital tasks orally with a text prompt shown to youth with smartphones.

More males (70%) than females (62%) were able to bring smartphones for digital tasks. Youth demonstrated highest proficiency in finding YouTube video (87%), followed by information browsing (79%), and alarm setting (77%). Among those who could find a given video on YouTube, around 92 per cent could share it with a friend. As expected, the performance on digital tasks also varies by youth gender and age, where males and older youth outperform females and younger youth. These findings reflect youths’ growing digital literacy -- their ability to navigate the Internet, find information, and use device functionalities with increasing confidence. The report also highlights state-wise disparities in smartphone usage and digital literacy where Kerala performs best in all of these indicators, followed by Sikkim.

The data underscores both the potential and the existing digital skills gap, suggesting the need for targeted digital literacy interventions that address gender-based and regional disparities. The ASER 2024 findings reveal both the achievements and challenges in rural India's digital landscape. While youth demonstrate high smartphone access, significant gaps remain in digital skills and readiness to adapt to an increasingly digital-dependent world. This growing access to smartphones and digital awareness among rural youth offers a remarkable opportunity to reshape the landscape of education, empowering youth and addressing longstanding challenges in rural learning environments. Specialised efforts are needed to close the gender and regional gap in digital readiness. By bridging digital infrastructure gaps and promoting responsible digital literacy, we can empower the next generation of rural youth to unlock their potential and contribute meaningfully to India’s development journey.

To formulate future policies, and to plan and design remedial programmes, regular, large-scale data will be crucial. Ultimately, digital literacy represents more than technological proficiency -- it is a fundamental pathway to empowerment, offering rural youth the tools to navigate, learn, and grow in an increasingly interconnected world.