Online education! Only 30.2 crore people able to access internet in rural India

Aug 6: As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India as on March 31, 2021, there were 82.53 crore internet subscribers in India, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Addressing the query in Rajya Sabha by Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien on the status of the Digital divide in the country, the minister informed that, “Over 30.2 crore people were able to access the internet in rural India while over 50.2 crore people accessed the internet in urban India.”

He also added that with a “specific goal” of increasing internet access in rural India, the government has implemented BharatNet project in all gram-panchayats and villages in the country. As of July 1, a total of “1,57,383 gram panchayats have been provided with high-speed Internet / broadband infrastructure”. He also added that until Wednesday 5,25,706 kilometers of the optical fiber has been laid down across the country.

With the outbreak of the pandemic, the government has urged the educational institutions to go online. But in a country, where 30.2 cr people in rural and 50.2 in urban have access to internet facilities, online education really seems to be tough for all.