This Is The Truth About ‘Digital Desh’ We Completely Missed Out In The Free Basics Debate
This is not a debate about net neutrality. It’s more of a reaction brought forth by a strange mixture of amusement and frustration. Let’s take a look at this picture one more time:
Mark Zuckerberg, in his profile, spoke about how this farmer was able to tend his crops better by keeping track of weather reports, with the help of Free Basics. In his editorial in the Times of India, he asks “How does Ganesh being able to better tend his crops hurt the internet?”
Zuckerberg also urges us to choose “facts over fiction” with regard to Free Basics and help connect the billion Indians.
I hate to make assumptions, but there are a few facts from which I would like to make deductions:
Fact #1: The real basic concern is not the digital divide.
The official poverty line is drawn at INR 26 per day in a village. Before we consider the digital divide, let’s first think about the great economic divide we have. There can only be two kinds of people- the ones who can afford a smartphone (which are very affordable, by the way. Facts to follow), and the ones who cannot afford a smartphone (and likely do not know what it is). In this case, a free ‘basic’ would be a smartphone. Bonus fact: A more basic ‘free basic’ is electricity, which would keep the phone alive.
Fact #2: Rural India is on the internet NOW.
There is no better testimony to how beautiful it is inside the internet of India than the Digital Desh Drive. This initiative by NowFloats put four people on an insightful road trip to the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities of India, trying to find out how small businesses use the internet, and out came hundreds of stories that will leave you with no doubt that internet connectivity in India is very much a reality. NowFloats helps small businesses get online with just 3 SMSes- anyone could get online without the internet or a smartphone- but that didn’t mean India wasn’t connected.
Here’s what they found:
Roop Raj is a carpet weaver and he boasts of having customers like Anjali Tendulkar and Richard Gere (not kidding). There’s a very simple reason how this happened- he listed himself on the internet. Usually, you would be concerned about how much money the weaver actually gets after the middlemen devour their share, but not any more. And when you list your business on the internet, it pays itself back, making internet charges basically free.
Fact #3: Internet connectivity is indeed an issue.
No, I wasn’t going to glaze over the fact that India lacks certain infrastructure where a lot of people are NOT connected. Like this:
- There are places where there is no signal at all:
That part of India where, despite having a dual-SIM phone, there’s barely any service on either network.
- There are people who don’t want the internet at all:
That section of India which believes that it doesn’t need the internet. Talk about ‘old school’!
- There are people who think the internet is an extravagance:
This boy’s father thinks that he doesn’t need the internet. After all, education happens in the school, right? But here’s the boy claiming that “Google is the father of all things”.
- There are people who can’t afford the internet prices, but manage to stay connected:
If TRAI has to act immediately about anything, I am pushing for price regulations across mobile networks. Mr. Yogesh Tiwari here will also agree because he’s tired of recharging his 3G internet pack. Let’s admit that it does cost a lot. But this gentleman here has a better solution to stay connected- he gets his friends to turn on their mobile hotspots. It’s only a ‘small favour’ on their behalf, but it means uninterrupted connectivity for Mr. Tiwari. Which brings me to the next Fact-
Fact #4: Indians are natural entrepreneurs.
Our limitless imagination and innovation is often (disrespectfully) referred to as jugaad — the ability to bend any rule to accomplish the impossible. It’s not true that India is NOT connected to the internet. But it’s possible that we’ve forgotten in our urban haze to connect with the talent that we don’t see everyday. This is something we need to think about especially when we’re looking at something like Startup India. It’s all very good to make the environment better for startups, but what about these guys who CAN do it and have been doing it without our help?
This guy is such a smartphone enthusiast that he’s bought every phone on the market and sold them off when he’s bored. How long do you think it will take this paan shop owner to turn into an electronics store owner?
Fact #5: Digital Literacy is a more important ‘basic’ than free internet access.
Smartphones are cheap, mobile networks are almost everywhere, but do the people know HOW TO USE THE INTERNET? That’s a very important question because this situation is quite rampant-
Often, when someone buys a smartphone, there’s another person helping them set it up and customize their experience. The problem doesn’t stop here, and it’s not as simple as instructing people the Hows and Whats of the internet.
Ask yourselves the following questions:
- How do you expect someone who can’t set up their own phone to be able to use it effectively? If someone is searching the internet for a video, are they going to know that there is a YouTube app or are they going to squint into their mobile browsers? If they lose it, will they know how to track it back? [This is just one in a million things that could happen.]
- Will people end up sharing their passwords with the friends who are going to ‘help them out’ and fall prey to all kinds of scams?
- Will people allow their women on the internet? Note how the entire list of fabulous stories that were shared above does not have a single woman. There are people who believe that the internet harms women. Khap panchayats ban women from owning a mobile phone.
- Will people know how to defend themselves from cyber-bullies? [Along with a world of evil that’ll come their way somehow.]
Like the rest of us, the average Indian person isn’t going to Google his/her own solution. It’s ironic and unbelievable, but there are some things people can do and they don’t have a clue about the rest.
In conclusion,
I’d just like to say that you can’t untangle the internet of India by giving out free internet and a pretty custom-made list of apps. True- the elite few of India are fighting for net-neutrality on behalf of the so-called ‘ignorant’ masses. It’s also true that the people who want to provide internet for the masses too, are the elite few.
The internet was never absent- we just need to find a way to motivate people to go online, and teach them how to survive the Web that’s as wide as the world. I repeat- Digital Literacy, and not free internet, is the need of the hour.
You know what they say- “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
But if you hand him a fishing pole and assume he’ll know what to do with it, he’ll poke you in the eye with it like it’s the most natural thing in the world- because you know, half-knowledge of anything will never stop being dangerous.
This article was co-authored by @GulatiSinghJ (@GulatiSinghJ -Twitter). Jasminder worked at global corporates for over 18 years, including 12 years at Microsoft before co-founding NowFloats in 2012 with Ronak Kumar Samantray, Nitin Jain and Neeraj Sabharwal. NowFloats helps local businesses get a meaningful digital presence that connects the business with local consumers resulting in higher revenue & profits. Over the past 3 years, NowFloats has over acquired over 200,000 customers and drives over 6M consumers to them every month. NowFloats has 6 patents, all ‘Make in India’.
