DIGITAL DIVIDE: CAUSES AND INITIATIVES TO BRIDGE

Abstract

There are so many divisions existed in the society e.g. gender, master-slave, rich-poor, caste-race-ethnic. Besides these, from the development point of view the world divided into three developed, developing, and underdeveloped (or 1st World, 2nd World, and 3rd World). Like the above divisions, the new division 'digital divide' arises in the world after the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to divide the digitally rich (countries with heavily use of ICT enabled devices/programs/services) and digitally poor i.e. just opposite of the above. The present paper depicts the origin and meaning of 'digital divide'; causes of 'digital divide'; and government, non-government and corporate initiatives in India to bridge the 'digital divid