India’s Digital Divide Has Shifted from Access to Agency
India’s Digital Divide Has Shifted from Access to Agency
Published on :- June 24th, 2026
A decade ago, India’s digital gender divide was primarily defined by exclusion. Many women remained offline, and policy efforts focused on expanding connectivity, lowering data costs, and improving device access. Based on the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–21), only 33% of women had ever used the internet, compared to 57% of men. In rural India, the gap was wider still, with internet use reported by just 24.7% of women versus 48.7% of men.
Since then, India’s digital infrastructure has expanded rapidly through affordable data, widespread 4G coverage, and growing smartphone adoption. Today, 86.3% of households have internet access and 85.5% own at least one smartphone. As a result, the challenge is gradually shifting from basic access to meaningful digital participation.
A smartphone in India today is no longer just a communication device — it is a bank branch, a government office, and a gateway to essential services. From using UPI apps for making/receiving payments to filing complaints on cybercrime portals, everyday participation increasingly depends on digital capability.Closing digital divide is also central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognise digital inclusion, internet access, and gender equity in technology use as critical to achieving the 2030 Agenda.
In this Data Dialogue, we examine how India’s digital divide is evolving using findings from the 2025 Comprehensive Modular Telecom Survey. The evidence suggests that while access gaps have narrowed, inequalities in usage, confidence, and participation continue to persist.
Note: In this survey, internet use refers to accessing the internet at least once during the last three months, from any location, using any device and for any purpose.
While India has crossed a critical threshold in household-level connectivity, the lowest connectivity is observed in the poorest households with monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) below ₹5,000. 54.5% of these households now have internet access, while 45.4% remain disconnected. The primary reason cited by this section is not the absence of network availability, but a lack of know-how in using the internet. This suggests that India’s digital divide is no longer driven by infrastructure gaps, but by deficits in digital literacy, skills, and user capability in an increasingly digital-first economy.
Connected households, Unequal access
Although more than 85% of households are now internet-connected, this access does not always guarantee that individuals within those homes own or control their own digital devices. When the focus shifts from household access to individual usage and ownership, it reveals gender inequalities hidden within aggregate access figures.
While India’s digital gender divide appears relatively narrow in internet usage with an 11 percentage point gap between men and women, the disparity is much sharper in smartphone ownership, where the gap widens to nearly 19 percentage points. Many women access the internet through shared or borrowed devices, limiting their privacy, autonomy, and consistent participation in the digital economy. They may be technically connected, but lack the freedom to learn, search, transact, or access opportunities independently.
India’s digital challenge is therefore not only about connectivity, but also about ownership and agency.
In rural India, 55% of women (aged 15-29) do not own a smartphone, compared to 21% of men. The widest 35 percentage point-gap is observed in women 30-44 years of age.
The capability gap: Access is not ability
Young Indians aged 15-29 are digital-first: 93.6% have used the internet in the last three months, 70.7% own smartphones. However, even where digital access and smartphone ownership exist, digital capability remains uneven.
Overall, Only 48.9% of Indians aged 15 and above can perform online banking activities , with a significant gender divide between men (60.5%) and women (37%). In fact as the age group increases, the ability decreases.
Gender gaps in ability persist in everyday functional digital skills beyond payments. Among youth aged 15-29, 88.8% can send messages with attachments. However, 92.1% of young men can perform this task, compared to 85.2% of young women. Among adults aged 30–44, 84.1% of men can send attachments, compared to only 64.4% of women. Among those aged 45 and above, the gap remains substantial, with just 29.7% of women reporting this ability versus 49.7% of men.
Among those who reported ability to perform online banking transactions, nearly 99.5% rely on UPI, with usage especially widespread in rural India. Users are successfully adopting a few intuitive platforms, but that does not necessarily translate into broader digital fluency.This suggests that India’s digital participation is deep in reach, but capability is limited.
Cyber safety awareness remains a weak link in India's digital journey. Only 17.8% of individuals aged 15 and above report being able to report cybercrime. Even among the most digitally connected age group—young people aged 15–29—the figure rises to just 26.9%.
Access and capability are strongly influenced by geography
The digital divide in India is also shaped not just by gender and age but also by geography. A rural woman aged 30 and above only has a 28% likelihood of owning a smartphone and just a 19.1% likelihood of transacting online. In contrast, an urban man aged 15-29 has nearly an 86% likelihood on both metrics. In states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal, fewer than 1 in 5 rural women over the age of 30 own a smartphone, even as welfare systems, banking, and public services are becoming digital-first.
States where women have higher literacy, stronger workforce participation, and greater autonomy tend to show more equitable digital access, and more importantly, greater digital agency. Madhya Pradesh records a gender gap of over 26 percentage points in smartphone ownership, while Goa (where 70% of women own smartphones compared to 64% of men), and Mizoram, with a gap of just 2%, demonstrate that far narrower, and even reversed, gender gaps are possible.
Note: State-level findings are directional and not strictly representative, since the survey was not designed for state-level estimation. Interpretations should focus on relative patterns and trends rather than absolute values.
India’s digital transformation has been remarkably successful in expanding connectivity, with 86.3% of households now connected to the internet. Today in all but a few pockets, a large share of the Indian population has access to the digital world. Yet the digital divide continues to persist, especially among women and 30+ yr olds. This divide today is not in terms of access but in terms of agency, independence, awareness, safety, capability etc.
Today India’s economy and public systems like banking, education, welfare services etc. are all undergoing a digital transformation. For everyone, especially women, older populations, and rural users, to meaningfully participate in and gain from this transformation, the digital divide has to be actively bridged.
To read more on the detailed analysis on the state of digital access and usage of phones, computer and internet in India in 2025 click here