Digital Bangladesh may be a worthy goal, but there is a lot of work at hand before it becomes a reality.
According to a survey conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 62% of Bangladeshi households do not have access to the internet at home. Quite naturally, households in low income brackets are far less likely than richer households to have internet access at home. Needless to say, this lack of access blocks the poor off from a vast world of opportunities that could be opened up through digital connectivity.
The inequality in internet access is making worse various other inequalities in society, particularly in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic. With classes being taken online, for example, children without access to the internet are suffering greatly. They are being deprived of learning opportunities, which will no doubt harm their future employability, and thus exacerbate their poverty.
The fact is, in this day and age, internet access can be the great equalizer if a concerted effort is made by the government to spread it to every household. In a very short span of time, we have seen the proliferation of mobile phones. The same, alas, has not happened with the internet.
Many are still not onboard when it comes to smartphone usage, preferring to do things in older, less efficient ways. Many families are also not fully educated on the benefits of internet usage, and so are unable to instill digital literacy in their households.
But we must understand that in the year 2020, internet literacy is as basic as reading, writing, and arithmetic, and internet access to all is as essential as other basic utilities we have come to depend on.
Getting the whole country online is not merely a worthy goal, but a goal we simply cannot afford to ignore.