According to a research jointly conducted by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB, the total number of active internet users in rural India is projected to rise by 98 per cent and touch 24 million by December 2011 as compared to 12.1 million in December 2010. Claimed internet user category is also set to grow by 96 per cent to reach 29.9 million by December 2011 from 15.2 million in December 2010. The results are based upon a primary research survey that interviewed about 15,000 people from various age groups, across SECs and genders from the states of Assam, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
“One of the main reasons for this growth in user numbers in rural areas is the growing awareness level about internet. According to the research, about 69 per cent of the rural population is aware of internet as opposed to 16 per cent projected in last year’s report. The second reason for the growth of rural internet users is that access has become easier. Only 18 per cent have had to access internet from Common Service Centers (CSCs) located outside the 10 km radius as opposed to 54 per cent last year,” the research said.
Spelling out more reasons for increased internet penetration especially in rural areas, the research said that Government initiatives facilitated by DIT (Department of Information Technology) such as NeGP (National e-Governance Plan), SWAN (State Wide Area Network) and CSC (Common Service Centres) are increasingly maturing. As per latest reports provided by the DIT, there are about 90,000 CSCs operational in various parts of India. With India having about 600,000 villages, each common service center on an average serves about six villages approximately.
The research further highlighted that entertainment is driving the adoption of internet in rural areas with entertainment, communication and instant messaging being the main purposes for access. 41 per cent of the claimed internet users had used the internet for watching, downloading and listening to music or uploading or downloading pictures while 32 per cent also used the internet for email, chat and communication.
Common Service Centers (CSCs) are by far the most widely used internet access points in rural India as about 65 per cent of all internet access in rural India happens at a CSC or any publicly accessible computer. As per the findings, education related surfing (49 per cent), general internet surfing (46 per cent), gaming purposes (28 per cent) and biodata and CV services (25 per cent) were the main reasons for people to access CSCs.
About 59 per cent of CSCs and cyber cafes in rural India charge between Rs 11 and Rs 20 per hour for internet access. Interestingly, the services provided by CSCs in Orissa are the cheapest offered in the entire country. In fact, 19 per cent of the respondents from Orissa claimed that they had accessed the Common Service Centers absolutely free of cost.
The research also highlighted that internet non awareness is still by far the main reason why people do not use the internet in rural areas. 31 per cent of the respondents said that they are not aware of internet and 23 per cent said that they don’t need to know about internet and its usefulness. 13 per cent of respondents cited unavailability of a personal computer at home as a reason whereas unavailability of internet access points as well as inability to operate a computer followed as various other reasons for non-usage of the internet.
“Internet awareness can be increased through careful planning, designing, and execution of various promotional campaigns. Based on the latest ICube 2010 findings, these campaigns should be run with Haat, Mela, and Mandi events in villages, as these are main channels that villagers are exposed to. In addition, the penetration of television and cable television in particular, has also risen greatly in rural India,” the study added.
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