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This article provides information about the Dimensions of Digital Divide that Exist in Our Country !
The ‘digital divide’ threatens to widen the already existing development gap between the rich and the poor among and within countries. The majority of the world’s people will not be able to benefit from this revolution unless they are enabled to participate fully in the emerging knowledge-based information society.
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Internal divide is between digitally empowered rich and the disempowered poor; linguistic cultural divide between domination of Anglo-Saxon and the other world culture; divide in access of technology between the rich and the poor nation; and the divide between the values of ICTs driven affluent elite and conventional authority and hierarchies. Disparities in per capita income and standards of living could translate into the marginalisation of entire societies or segments of society.
Also within countries, technological change often means that groups, which were already disadvantaged or excluded low- income families, rural populations, women, minorities, and the elderly — fall farther behind. In the United Kingdom, for example, only 4 per cent of households in the poorest income quintile are connected to the Internet, compared with 43 per cent in the top quintile, and the gap is increasing every year. In the United States the proportion of Afro-American families that are connected is half that for white families.
The 2001 ILO report reveals a “digital gender gap” in many parts of the world, including OECD countries. Although some economies have near parity in Internet use (examples are Taiwan, China, with 45 per cent female users, and Korea, with 43 per cent), the situation is more often far from balanced.
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On a global scale, it divides industrial and developing countries according to their ability to use, adapt, produce, and diffuse knowledge. In Korea the number of households connected to the Internet in 2000 doubled, raising the total to 3 million homes, whereas in Japan only 450,000 homes are connected.
The technological gap between high-income and low- income countries is reflected in the number of personal computers per 1,000 inhabitants less than I in Burkina Faso, compared with 27 in South Africa, 38 in Chile, 172 in Singapore, and 348 in Switzerland. Sub-Saharan African countries together have 1 Internet user per 5,000 populations; in Europe and North America the proportion is 1 user for every 6 inhabitants (International Communications Union data). Among developing countries, the digital divide sets apart the technologically more advanced countries from the less advanced ones.
Whereas a few African countries with small populations still lack even one Internet host, in Singapore 98 per cent of households use the Internet. Within a given region, some countries have a stronger information and communication infrastructure than others. In Sub-Saharan Africa the number of Internet hosts per 1,000 population ranges from 0.01 in Burkina Faso to 3.82 in South Africa (International Telecommunications Union data). Most reports on disparities in ICT access within countries look at the problem according to socio-economic criteria such as race, income, geographical location, education, age, gender, and disability.
Notwithstanding this divide, many experts are of the opinion that the countries that do not adopt and adapt to the current technological changes will be marginalised widening further digital divide within and between the countries.