How is the digital divide generating new conflict in Nepali society?

 

Module 1 Assignment.

1. How is the digital divide generating new conflict in Nepali society?

 

Digital divide is created due to the high speed of development of digital technology. Our school, colleges, governance, local government, hospitals, connections among friends and many more are going digital. Current information is available in digital means and media. Digital technology is required to buy. The devices are expensive. In other hand, if the basic know-how of digital skill is not acquired, it could be matter of big deal for those who cannot. Nepal has still many populations who has difficulty of bread and butter. In such conditions, they are beyond access to digital literacy. A study on digital divide has identified the left behinds are elderly people, sole parents, people from rural areas, and people with disability (Cullen, 2001).

However, the rapid adoption of digital technology is increasingly adopted in many sectors. Hence, the digital haves not population have deprived of digital market, opportunities and so on. They lagged even more and the advanced group who are digitally well educated can grab many facilities and opportunities.

Digital accessibility and use became the basic requirement, but people who could not pay and use digital accessibility are living life of unjust society. Nepali society is already unequal from social, economic and political measures, now the new measure digital accessibility and digital competences has also added over the course of disparity and inequality. It is a serious matter.

The digital divide has impacted on e-governance of Nepal (Acharya, 2020); similarly, there was uneven educational access during Covid-19 due digital inaccessibility (Lamichhane, 2023). Digital divide can have serious impact on every sector of development.

Acharya, B. B. (2020). Impacts of the Digital Divide on the E-government Portals of Nepal. Digital Inequalities in the Global South, 33-57.

Cullen, R. (2001). Addressing the digital divide. Online Information Review, 25(5), 311-320. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520110410517

Lamichhane, Y. R. (2023). A silver lining or digital divide? Systematic review of literature on online learning during Covid-19 in Nepal. E-Learning and Digital Media, 20427530231160890.