WTD 2025: Gender equality - A prerequisite for digital transformation
Digital India
– launched in 2015, that envisions ubiquitous digital infrastructure, provision of digital services, and last but not least, digital empowerment of the citizens.
As per Kantar and IAMAI, India has almost 900 million Internet users, with women comprising 47% of users. According to GSMA's Mobile Gender Gap Report 2025, 84% of adult males in India have a mobile but only 71% of females have one. In case of smartphones, the skew is even more pronounced – 58% versus 36%. No wonder, females account for almost 60% of all the shared device users in the country, accessing the Internet using devices owned by others.
According to Innovating for the Next Half Billion (NHB), there is a widespread fear that smartphones will expose women to 'bad influences' and lead to harassment or even broken marriages. Many women have self-restricted their desire for phones and use of the internet, based on such internalisation. Almost 13% of Indian women who own a smartphone do not use mobile Internet and two-thirds are not even aware of it.
UNICEF's report, Bridging the Gender Digital Divide, had similar findings in terms of ownership and usage gaps across genders but also highlighted that for every 100 male youth with digital skills, only 65 female youth possess similar skills.
Even globally, 70% of the male population uses the Internet compared to 65% of the female population. Clearly, this glaring
digital gender gap
severely constrains their agency and privacy while also limits their social, political and economic participation, even as digital technologies do hold enormous potential to bridge the gender gap in access to labour markets.
Gender-based online violence is another key challenge and more so with the onset of AI-enabled deepfakes besides the prevalence of revenge porn and cyberstalking. In fact, the cybercrime reporting portal operated by the Ministry of Home Affairs was originally started only for reporting incidents of cybercrime against children and women under the CCPWC (Cybercrime Prevention against Women and Children) Scheme.
Gender Equality in Digital Transformation
World Telecommunication & Information Society Day
(WTISD) is observed every year on May 17 to celebrate the birth of the International Telecommunications Union (
ITU
), the oldest UN agency that was established in 1865, eight decades before the UN itself. As ITU turns 160 and as the world reflects on the progress over the past three decades since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 for advancing women's rights, the WTISD theme 'Gender Equality in Digital Transformation' seems perfectly timed.
Recognising the broader and more diverse set of gender identities beyond just the male and female, the usage of the term 'gender' is intentional. For example, several individuals belonging to non-binary gender identities use the digital ecosystem in pursuit of information, associations and relationships. However, they are also frequent targets of gender-based violence.
In March 2025, speaking at a ministerial roundtable on 'Digital and Financial Inclusion for Women's Empowerment at the UN Headquarters, the Minister for Women and Child Development Annapurna Devi had offered India's willingness to share with the world its experiences of using digital public infrastructure (DPI) to bridge the digital gender divide.
The JAM (Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) trinity accelerated financial inclusion in India from 17% in 2009 to 80% in 2017, something that would have otherwise taken 47 years. More significantly, 56% of the new bank account holders were women. This is just one example of how gender-intentional policies can help.
Gender-Intentional and Time-Bound Policy
India needs to have a gender-intentional digital inclusion policy, spanning:
Access
Gender budgeting by Digital Bharat Nidhi to provide targeted subsidy for devices and services for those meeting certain prescribed socio-economic norms.Support women-collective led Panchayat-level community ISPs and quasi-private browsing zones within the Common Service Centres.Expand the scope of MNREGA to include digital infrastructure.
Applications and Services
Gender-empowering applications and services with participation of intended users and beneficiaries.
Skilling
Integrate and impart digital, financial and cyber literacy programs, currently being rolled out in isolation.
Safety and Privacy
Foster online safety, especially against gender-based violence.Ensure holistic privacy , beyond data protection.
Monitoring and Review
Integrate granular aspects in various surveys to better understand, map and analyse gaps and trends.
Public Private Partnership
Leverage private enterprises and civil society where appropriate, without stifling them with over-regulation.
(DISCLAIMER: Views expressed are the author's personal.)
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