1. THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
The term “digital divide” refers to gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the internet for a wide variety of activities.
----Understanding the Digital Divide, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2001
The dominant ICT discourses are: (i) ICT evolution is more or less a linear process where there is a possibility of leapfrogging; (ii) ICT is expected to carry the solutions for a wide range of social problems and challenges; (iii) If a country do not get on the ICT train and adapt quickly, it will run into severe trouble (Ekdahl and Trojer, 2002). Loader (1998) states that it is not unreasonable to suppose that the digital divide will be a significant feature of the political dialogue in the near future, where the present benefits of ICTs are unevenly distributed and the disadvantageous are particularly concentrated in the 'black holes of human misery'.
In March 2001, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan expressed his belief that ICT has great potential of reducing poverty in the world. The project named UNITeS started by Annan was criticized by Anriette Esterhuyse, Head of African Progressive Communication, saying it is dangerous to identify ICT as a miraculous medicine for poverty (Ekdahl and Trojer, 2002). Vandana Shiva (1998) once said "New technologies travel on old social relations." This meant that unless the old forms of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, race or gender stop, ICT is not going to produce prosperity for all.
In End of Millennium, Volume III, Manuel Castells (1998) discusses the power battles of the 'information age', claiming that these battles are in fact cultural battles--
Power, as the capacity to impose behaviour, lies in the networks of information exchange and symbolic manipulations, which relate social actors, institutions and cultural movements, through icons, spokespersons and intellectual amplifiers […] Culture as the source of power, and power as the source of capital, underlie the new social hierarchy of the Information Age.
Will catching-up do any good to the underdeveloped countries? For some, poverty of the underdeveloped nations is not a result of 'natural' lagging behind but the direct consequence of the over-development of the rich industrial countries (Ekdahl and Trojer, 2002). Indeed the discourse on digital divide has become a battlefield of contrasting ideologies, but the ground reality is that to reduce the growing digital gap, governments and private sector in the underdeveloped countries have to play a decisive role.
The common indicators of digital divide are communications' infrastructures, access to Internet, computer availability, availability of alternative sources of ICT i.e. TVs, mobile phones.
The major determinants of digital divide are:
1. Household or Individual Income: It is an important determinant of the presence of PCs and the extent of Internet access in homes. Income distribution is particularly important in determining the diffusion of new technology, with higher income groups acquiring ICTs early and leading uptake. However, rates of increase in access are larger for lowest income groups in almost all OECD countries. In France, for e.g., the highest income bracket had 74% PC penetration in 2000 and the lowest income bracket only 11%. The growth rate from 1998 to 2000 was 68% for the lowest income bracket, compared with 47% for the highest income bracket (OECD, 2001). But this may not be true for underdeveloped countries where demand for basic amenities can be stronger than that of ICTs.
2. Level of Education: In general, the higher the level of education, the more likely individuals has access to and use of ICTs in both the home and the workplace. Educational attainment and income are strongly correlated and explain much of the difference in uptake. A study in the OECD countries reveals that at the same income level, those with higher educational attainment will have higher rates of access. There are large differences in PC penetration and Internet access between those with tertiary education and those at the lowest educational levels, although the latter group is growing more rapidly from a low base (OECD, 2001).
3. Size and Type of Households: Given other things, size and type of households do matter in PC penetration and Internet access. In the OECD countries, families with children have the highest access of all households, and couples with children under 18 are more likely to have a PC and Internet access. Rates for these types of households are approximately double the rate for single person households (OECD, 2001).
4. Age of the Population: PC penetration and Internet access are generally lower for older people than for younger people in the OECD countries. Usage has tended to grow faster in younger age group (OECD, 2001).
5. Gender: Gender can determine access to Internet and ICTs. In the United States, Internet use rates by men and women were statistically identical. However, women users tended to be in the younger age group, while men were in the older age groups. Similar, results are found for Iceland. In Sweden, recent data suggest that men are outpacing women in Internet usage. In UK, there is gender disparity in Internet usage, with 52% of men having access to the Internet in comparison to 39% of women (OECD, 2001). International Labour Organization's (ILO)’s World Employment Report 2001 shows that women are the minority users of Internet in both developing and developed countries. Only 38% of Internet users in Latin America are women, 25% in European Union, 19% in Russia, 18% in Japan and 14% in Middle East. However, gender gap in ICT usage is quite low in Nordic countries and in the US of America. Women's representation in core ICT occupations is quite low due to their under-representation in core ICT science and engineering curricula in education systems. Promotion of education and literacy generally and digital literacy in particular is the huge challenge facing all countries. Even in the ICT related jobs, men hold majority of the high skilled and high-value added jobs. An ILO study on the Indian software industry reveals that men are mostly in export software firms, while women are present in domestic low end and IT enabled services (Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar, Gayathri, 2001).
6. Rural Urban Divide/ Location: In the OECD countries, members of households in urban areas are more likely to have occupations where computers and the Internet are part of their work environment. Costs tend to be higher and quality of access lower in rural areas. Incomes tend to be lower in rural areas and ICT costs are relatively higher for low-income groups. Internet access levels are higher in capital cities and highly industrialized and advanced regions than in rural and peripheral regions. Leading areas have higher concentration of more technologically advanced businesses and academic and research institutions, which are likely to have high levels of uptake and use of new technologies. Network infrastructure tends to be more expensive and lower capacity and quality in remote areas (OECD, 2001). An ILO study on the Indian software industry shows that there is absence of rural-brains in the IT industry. Urban mass has the advantage of knowing English (Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar, Gayathri, 2001).
7. Ethnicity: Within a particular country, digital accessibility may be easier for certain groups to obtain because of the past policies of the State or the mindset of the people. For example, the digital divide between certain groups of Americans increased between 1994 and 1997, resulting in a widening gap between those at upper and lower income levels and between both Blacks and Hispanics as compared with Whites (US Department of Commerce, 1999). A study by ILO reveals that in the Indian software industry (Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar, Gayathri, 2001), professionals belonging to the forward castes form the highest proportion of workers in the software industry.
8. Infrastructure and Cost of Accessibility: Infrastructure is the foundation for the development of ICT. Most information and communication technologies depended on electrical power and telephone lines. The production and consumption of energy varies broadly across countries in direct relationship with their economic supremacy. Developing countries tend to have lower levels of energy production, less efficient systems that produce great losses during transmission and distribution, and lower consumption levels. Similarly, wealthier countries have more phone lines per 100 inhabitants than countries and regions with weaker economies. Costs too strongly affect access. Despite reduction in costs in the past decades, indicators still show significant cost differences among countries and within countries in a single region.
9. Legal frameworks and Institutions: They basically mean laws and regulations that facilitate or constrain the use of technologies for the proposed objectives. Telecommunications was viewed as a natural monopoly. It was seen as most efficient to have one and only producer. Because costs in this industry fall as the scale of production/ operation increases, the largest firm in the industry achieved lowest costs and could under price its rivals. Governments thus entered the arena and prevented the entry of competitors, arguing that they would wastefully duplicate existing facilities or provide services only to low-cost users (typically those in urban areas, where the density of customers was high). But inefficiency and underinvestment by State telephone monopolies led to bad service, and did little or nothing for the poor or the rural areas. Since the 1980s, countries over the world have witnessed a sea change in the way information infrastructure is supplied, priced, financed, used and regulated. As already said, natural monopolies occur when firms that produce at lower costs, are said to achieve economies of scale. But when firms using the new technologies have low costs even at small scale of operations, there may be many competitors. Traditional cross subsidies from international to local calling have generally failed to provide universal access, because they have neither been transparent nor well targeted. But all these are changing now. Privatisation of telecom sector has become a key issue. However, when a state monopoly is privatized without proper regulations, then a private monopoly can emerge which results in the transfer of economic rents from public sector to private sector without any gain in efficiency, no lower prices and no broader service. So the State has a bigger role to play while privatising the telecom sector.
It is clear that degree of IT diffusion has a strong positive correlation with the level of income per capita among selected Asian and Pacific countries. People’s Republic of China (PRC), Malaysia and Thailand are in a much more advanced stage than the other developing countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Pacific. For e.g., Internet users per 1000 people are: 260-420 in the Newly Industrialized Countries (NIEs), 69 in Malaysia, 17 in Thailand, 14 in the PRC, 9 in Pakistan, 7 in the Philippines, 5 in India and Kazakhstan, 4 in Sri Lanka, 2 in Indonesia, Kyrgyz, Nepal and Vietnam and less than 1 in Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea (Kim, 2002).
1.1 Defining ICTs
Defining ICTs in a world where everyday a new ICT device and technology is invented with never before impact on the social and economic spheres of the society is difficult. What we get is not one but many definitions of ICTs. ICTs include electronic networks—embodying complex hardware and software—linked by a vast array of technical protocols. ICTs are embedded in networks and services that affect the local and global accumulation and flows of public and private knowledge (Mansell and Silverstone, 1996). ICTs cover Internet Service Provision, telecommunications equipment and services, information technology (IT) equipment and services, media and broadcasting, libraries and documentation centres, commercial information providers, network-based information services, and other related information and communication activities. Some take ICT and IT as the same type of technology. For example, Foster (1994) defines IT as 'the group of technologies that is revolutionising the handling of information' and embodies a convergence of interest between electronics, computing and communication (Drew and Foster, 1994).
Chowdhury (2000) states that ICTs encompass technologies that can process different kinds of information (voice, video, audio, text and data) and propitiates different forms of communications among human agents, among humans and information systems, and among information systems. They are about capturing, storing, processing, sharing, displaying, protecting, and managing information. Duncombe and Heeks (1999) provide a simple definition by defining ICTs as an “electronic means of capturing, processing, storing and disseminating information”. In this paper the terms IT and ICT have been used interchangeably.
Users refer to ICTs as one monolithic entity. But ICTs are very different in their potential and use. The potential of different technologies depends on what we use them for. There are at least 5 hierarchical levels at which technologies may be used: presentation, demonstration, drill and practice, interaction, and collaboration. If technology is used for presentation and demonstration only, investment in computers and connectivity may not be justifiable. On the other hand, the potential for interactive and collaborative learning can be best achieved by networked computers and connectivity to the World Wide Web. Therefore, technology should not be equated with computers and Internet. There is still an important place for other technologies, such as community and interactive radio, broadcast TV and correspondence courses. Moreover the choice of a technology depends on location.
2. EDUCATION, 'DEVELOPMENT' AND ICTs
The World Employment Report 2001 emphasizes that literacy and education cannot be leapfrogged, yet both are vital for reaping the greatest advantages from the emerging digital era. The promotion of education and literacy generally, and digital literacy in particular, is a challenge facing all countries. Educational differences underlie the different rates of penetration of ICT and Internet usage. For example, the ICT world is often depicted as a world of relatively young men, and the available evidence supports this depiction. Two-thirds of the world's illiterate are girls and women. Nor are girls sufficiently enrolled in the science curricula at the core of the technologies' innovation and use.
2.1 Role of Education in promoting Development and Growth
Today ‘development’ means enhancing people's capabilities and widening their choices to enjoy the freedoms that make life meaningful and worthwhile. These freedoms encompass the rights of access to resources that allow people to avoid illness, have self-respect, be well nourished, sustain livelihoods and enjoy peaceful relationships. In this framework, education is important for at least 4 reasons. First, the skills provided by basic education are valuable in their own rights, as a fundamental outcome of development. Second, education can help to displace other negative features of life such as elimination of child labour due to introduction of basic education. Third, education can play a vital role in empowering those who suffer from multiple disadvantages. And fourth, education can lead to skill-upgradation which can raise one’s entitlement/ income. Thus women who have benefited from education may simply survive better and longer than they would otherwise.
One of the factors determining the diffusion of ICT is spread of education and literacy. However, some argue that with the help ICT, education itself can be promoted. The main problem is providing infrastructure and re-training the teaching staff in the context of a new knowledge based economy. The mode of educating people needs to be changed to take advantage of ICT. Different ICTs have the potential to contribute to different aspect of educational development and effective learning: expanding access, promoting efficiency, improving the quality of learning, enhancing the quality of teaching, and improving management systems. ICTs can also promote efficiency of delivery of educational services by supplementing conventional delivery mechanisms (Haddad and Draxler, 2002).
New growth theory or endogenous growth theory has tried to explain the existence of different levels of income and growth rates across nations. Conditional convergence hypothesis says that after controlling for factors such as population growth, savings rates etc., a country that has initially a lower per capita income grows faster because it has less per capita capital relative to the steady state level, and thus a higher marginal return to capital and higher rate of per capita growth. Thus, this hypothesis as propounded by the neoclassical growth theory could explain the differences in per capita income across countries through variations in savings rate and population growth. However, recent empirical evidences suggests that factors such as endogenous technical progress, human capital accumulation increasing returns to research and development (R&D), government policies might have stronger explanatory power in determining the difference in per capita income across countries (Barro and Sala-I-Martin, 1995).
A crucial source of economic growth that is highlighted by the endogenous growth theory is skills and knowledge of labour. Skills and knowledge enhance the productivity of factors of production through activities such as education and on the job training. It has been argued by Barro (1989), Lucas (1988) and Romer (1990) that investment in human capital raises the efficiency of labour, which in turn results in output growth. After studying the economy of Republic of Korea, Young (1995) and Nelson and Pack (1999) have argued that coupled with factor accumulations in capital and labour force, an increase in human capital through improved educational levels led to the fast economic growth experienced by Korea. High level of education has enabled the labour force to absorb rapid changes in technology. The important point of the endogenous growth theory is that knowledge drives growth. Because "ideas" or knowledge can be infinitely shared and reused, one can accumulate them without limit. "Ideas" are not subject to diminishing returns like land, physical labour or physical capital. Instead the increasing returns to knowledge propel economic growth.
It is essential for a country today to have sufficient IT-skilled manpower not only for the growth of IT sector but also the sectors where IT is used. IT related jobs require engineering, science and computers managers; electrical and electronics engineers; electrical powerline installers and repairers; electrical and electronics technicians; broadcast technicians; computer equipment operators; electronic semiconductor processors; communication equipment operators; and telephone and cable TV installers and repairers. IT is driving more skills upgrading. In this connection, imparting IT education and training through formal (schools, colleges, universities, private institutes) and informal sources (learning by doing on job site, learning from friends and colleagues, learning from the Internet, learning through NGO initiatives etc.) becomes vital. Countries and regions which are performing dismally in terms of education, will be unable to catch-up the digital revolution if they have not yet taken any step in this direction.
3. CONCLUSION
There is a clear need to create a strategic alliance between the government, the private sector, the civil society and the rural and urban local bodies (including communities) in order to implement successful ICT led initiatives. Education and human development should be be focal points for any IT related policy making and intervention. There should be a mechanism to see the impact of IT on the socio-economic development of the society. Both the pros and cons associated with IT should be seen. In the meantime, the impact of IT on efficiencies of organisations practising knowledge management and sharing should be seen. At the same time one should not forget that we are living in a 'knowledge economy'.
Reference
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Endnotes
This is to inform the readers that the article is not meant to hurt anybody, and is based upon the review of many past studies.
Ekdahl, Peter and Lena Trojer (2002): Digital Divide: Catch Up for What? in Gender, Technology and Development, 6 (1), Sage Publications.
Loader, Brian (1998): 'Cyberspace Divide: Equality, Agency and Policy in the Information Society, ' in Brian Loader (ed.) Cyberspace Divide: Equality, Agency and Policy in the Information Society, Routledge, London and New York.
Ekdahl, Peter and Lena Trojer (2002): Digital Divide: Catch Up for What? in Gender, Technology and Development, 6 (1), Sage Publications.
Shiva, Vandana (1998): Lecture on 'Focus on Biotechnology', Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, March 5.
Castells, Manuel (1998): End of Millennium, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Volume III, Blackwell Publishers, London.
Ekdahl, Peter and Lena Trojer (2002): Digital Divide: Catch Up for What? in Gender, Technology and Development, 6 (1), Sage Publications.
Understanding the Digital Divide by OECD / DSTI (OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry) (2001) from the CD named Joint OECD/ UN/ World Bank Global Forum on the Knowledge Economy, Integrating ICT in Development Programmes. OECD
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar, Gayathri (2001): Labour in the New Economy-The Case of the Indian Software Labour Market, International Labour Organization, New Delhi.
Ibid.
Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar, Gayathri (2001): Labour in the New Economy-The Case of the Indian Software Labour Market, International Labour Organization, New Delhi
The Emerging Digital Economy II, US Department of Commerce, June 1999, accessed from http://www.esa.doc.gov/pdf/EDE2report.pdf.
Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar, Gayathri (2001): Labour in the New Economy-The Case of the Indian Software Labour Market, International Labour Organization, New Delhi.
Kim, Yun-Hwan (2002): Financing Information Technology Diffusion in Low-income Asian Developing Countries, Development Centre Seminars, Technology and Poverty Reduction in Asia, OECD-ADB, Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Mansell, R and R Silverstone (1996): Communication by Design: The Politics of Information and Communication Technologies. Oxford: OUP.
Drew, E and FG Foster ed. (1994): Information Technology in Selected Countries. Tokyo: United Nations University Press. http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu19ie/uu19ie00.htm
Chowdhury, N (2000): 'Information and Communications Technologies and IFPRI's Mandate: A Conceptual Framework.' Sept. 18, 2000. http://www.ifpri.org/divs/cd/dp/ictdp01.pdf
Duncombe R and R Heeks (1999): 'Information, ICTs and Small Enterprise: Findings from Botswana', IDPM Manchester Working Paper No. 7, November 1999. http://idpm.man.ac.uk/idpm/diwpf7.htm
Note: Education For All (EFA), whose benefit can be accrued by everybody, was one of the goals of The Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments, held in Dakar, Senegal in between 26-28 April, 2000. The World Education Forum later adopted this framework.
Haddad, Wadi D and Alexandra Draxler (2002): 'The Dynamics of Technologies for Education', in Wadi D Haddad and Alexandra Draxler (ed.) Technologies for Education: Potential, Parameters and Prospects, UNESCO and Academy for Educational Development, accessed from http://www.aed.org/publications/TechEdInfo.html
Barro, RJ and X Sala-I-Martin (1995): Economic Growth, New York: McGraw-Hill
Barro, RJ (1989): Fertility Choice in a Model of Economic Growth, in Econometrica, 57 (2, March): 481-501.
Lucas, RE (1988): On the Mechanics of Development Planning, in Journal of Monetary Economics 22(1, July): 3-42.
Romer, Paul M (1990): Endogenous Technological Change, in Journal of Political Economy, 98 (5, October): Part II, S71-S102.
Young, A (1995): The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience, in Quarterly Journal of Economics 110 (3): 641-80.
Nelson, RR and H Pack (1999): The Asian Miracle and Modern Growth Theory, in the Economic Journal 109 (July): 416-36.
