Digital technologies can play a significant role in bridging the gender gap in India; however, it is mired in its own set of challenges. Discuss.

Access to Women's education i) in geographical isolated region (Improve Accessibility) ii) => Reduces drop out rate among girl child iii) => Better educational outreach

◎ Political i) – Representatively e. grampanchayat ii) – Harassment and Access to Information

Economic Accu to: – online employment – work from home (Reduces gender role burden)

– Digital technologies Significant role

ii) Health:

– online consultation at Affordable rate

i) => online consultation at

◎ Social dimension

However, digital technology has own challenges:

◎ Cultural:

i) Education – digital gap

– only 80 % of women have access to internet

– Thus doesn't cover everyone (may aggravate gender gap)

◎ Health => Inacccessate Health checkups and High cost of services

◎ Infrastructure crunches: – Regional disparities in mobile tower connectivity and signal strength

◎ During COVID, students from North, eastern region were left on tree to access internet (Getty signal)

◎ Poverty and Affordability: – Feminization of poverty: Women have less affordable capability to access digital technologies ◎ Smart phone Usage in Rural India, lesser among women

◎ Digital literacy High among women.

◎ Security – cyber threats in data and critical financial data (cyber crime)

i) => online threats more targeted towards women

ii) => child pornography and deep fake creation (◎ morphing of social media images of women)

◎ Work from home has its own demerits of True poverty:

Then: technology a a double edged sword. Care has to be taken to make it more accessible, affordable, inclusive and safe to reduce gender gap.