India’s digital transformation has expanded internet access at an unprecedented pace, but a new divide is emerging between digital access and meaningful digital use. Affordable smartphones, low-cost data packages and expanding connectivity have brought millions online, extending digital access to households that were earlier excluded from the digital ecosystem. Yet access alone does not ensure digital inclusion. The ability to use digital technologies for education, livelihoods and public services remains deeply unequal.
For years, policymakers assessed digital inclusion largely through the lens of connectivity and internet access. Today, however, the challenge is fundamentally different. India’s digital challenge is no longer about connecting people to the internet; it is about connecting people to opportunities. The emerging divide is increasingly between those who can translate connectivity into capabilities and opportunities and those whose digital engagement remains confined to consumption.
As technology increasingly shapes how we learn, work, earn, interact and thrive, connectivity generates value only when it is harnessed effectively.
The recently released report, ‘The Evolving Landscape of Digital Inclusion in India’, 2026 based on the third wave of India Human Development Survey (IHDS-2022-24) survey offers a revealing glimpse into India’s digital behaviour. Among connected households, 66 per cent reported using the internet to watch movies or serials during the past year, while 53.8 per cent used it for social media. In contrast, only 16.1 per cent reported participating in online courses or educational classes during the same period.
These figures point to a second digital divide. While connectivity has expanded rapidly, the uses of the internet that build human capabilities remain limited. While digital access has expanded at remarkable speed, digital engagement remains disproportionately anchored in entertainment rather than learning, productivity or skill development. Entertainment is a legitimate use of the internet. The concern arises when entertainment becomes the dominant form of digital participation while learning and opportunity-enhancing activities remain marginal.
It is that a technology capable of widening knowledge, enhancing skills and unlocking opportunities is too often overshadowed by passive content consumption.
A key explanation actually lies in the nature of India’s digital ecosystem. Internet usage remains overwhelmingly mobile-centric, with 71.4 per cent of households accessing the internet primarily through mobile devices. Mobile ownership is nearly universal, with 95.1 per cent of households possessing a mobile phone and only marginal differences between rural (94.1 per cent) and urban (97.3 per cent) India. While mobile phones have democratised access, they have not necessarily democratised digital capabilities.
For many users, digital participation increasingly revolves around social media scrolling, short-form video consumption, gaming, YouTube viewing, reel watching and other forms of algorithm-driven entertainment. Activities demanding greater concentration, digital literacy and purposeful engagement such as online learning, coding, professional upskilling, advanced financial management or job searching remain comparatively limited. For many users, especially in poorer and rural households, internet access has not translated into the skills and confidence required to use digital platforms for employment, learning and public services.
The data vividly illustrates this imbalance. Only 11.4 per cent of households reported using the internet to access government services, such as accessing certificates, address change or availing welfare-linked services. Similarly, only 11.7 per cent reported using digital platforms to pay utility bills. These low levels of engagement suggest that public investments in digital governance may not deliver their intended benefits if citizens lack the capabilities to use online services independently.
The unequal distribution of productive digital engagement begins early in life and risks reproducing existing social inequalities. Social media usage was reported by 45.8 per cent of men and 21.7 per cent of women aged 15-59 years, while only 6.9 per cent of men and 3.2 per cent of women reported using computers for work or educational purposes. A similar pattern is emerging among younger users. Among children aged 13-16 years, 65.3 per cent have access to a mobile device and 37.8 per cent actively use the internet, with social media usage standing at 21.3 per cent. (Source: India Human Development Survey (IHDS-III), 2022-24)
Yet access alone does not guarantee learning. Without adequate guidance, access to digital devices may reinforce entertainment-oriented habits rather than support learning and skill formation. For children from disadvantaged households, this pattern risks creating new forms of educational inequality despite increased connectivity.
At a first glance, the obvious solution appears to be wider access to computers, laptops, tablets and broadband connectivity. While device diversification certainly matters, hardware alone is unlikely to solve the problem. At present, only around 8 per cent of Indian households own a computer or laptop, but the larger challenge extends beyond the device category. Only 21.9 per cent of rural households reported having even one person with computer literacy at home, compared to 43.6 per cent in urban households. One in five households using digital services still depends on assistance from someone outside the household. These figures suggest that digital inclusion cannot be reduced to infrastructure provision. Capabilities, confidence and independent digital navigation are equally important determinants of inclusion. The gap in computer literacy between rural and urban households also indicates that digital technologies may reproduce existing inequalities unless capability gaps are addressed.
Although smartphone access has expanded, many women remain excluded from the more empowering dimensions of digital participation, limiting their financial autonomy and independent access to welfare schemes, banking services and information.
The issue is equally prevalent among young people. Hours spent scrolling through reels, watching videos, gaming or consuming social media content may provide entertainment, but they often come at the cost of opportunities to acquire skills, gain knowledge and build future employability. Digital inequalities are also reproduced within households, where patterns of internet use influence how younger generations perceive and use technology.
Children frequently imitate the habits they observe at home. When internet usage within families is dominated by entertainment, younger users are more likely to adopt similar patterns. Conversely, when parents utilise digital technologies for learning, information-seeking, and financial management, those practices are more likely to be transmitted across generations.
The next phase of India’s digital transformation must move beyond expanding connectivity towards building digital capabilities across schools, workplaces and communities. Workplaces must continuously upgrade employees’ digital competencies, while community-level initiatives should target women, elderly citizens and other digitally vulnerable groups, equipping them with practical skills related to internet banking, digital payments, e-governance services and online learning. The true measure of digital inclusion is not how many people are online, but how effectively they use the opportunities that the digital world offers. Otherwise, India risks creating a second digital divide, one defined not by access to technology but by unequal access to the educational, economic and civic opportunities that digital technologies can provide.
Views and opinions expressed in this article are personal
Madhura Chowdhuri is Associate Fellow at National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi and Sagari Gupta is a Public Policy Researcher
Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth