India has a 14% gender gap in mobile ownership but a striking 41% gap in mobile internet use, lower only after Bangladesh, finds a mobile gender gap report by GSMA.
Smartphone ownership among women grew marginally from 25% in 2020 to 26% in 2021, while mobile internet use remained stagnant at 30% in 2021, the report finds.
At the same time, smartphone ownership among men grew substantially from 41% in 2020 to 49% in 2021, while mobile internet use grew from 45% in 2020 to 51% in 2021.
Handset costs were the leading barrier to owning a mobile phone across both genders in India, but literacy and knowing how to use a mobile remained key barriers for women. 14% of women mobile users also deemed data costs to be unaffordable.
The report found that the proliferation of smart feature phones with advanced features led to both men and women in India engaging in a wider range of use cases than those in other countries. Smart feature phones address the affordability concerns, and can be a stepping stone to normalizing women’s use of smartphones. These devices also incorporate voice commands that address the low literacy levels, the report finds.
GSMA said India saw a remarkable growth in Indian women’s mobile internet use between 2020 and 2021, as a result of changing market dynamics which made the internet more affordable. The COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns also drove more women online, helping narrow down the gender gap.
“Despite an initial sharp increase in mobile internet adoption in the early stages of COVID-19, women’s mobile internet use appears to have plateaued as the pandemic has progressed and livelihoods have suffered, and to a much greater extent than men,” the report states .
The number of use cases performed by women mobile owners in India also follows a similar trajectory. The use cases, which ranged from video calls, education to income-generating opportunities, increased substantially from 3.2 use cases per week in 2019 to 4.9 in 2020, and then plateauing in 2021.
According to the report, the number of women using phones for video calls jumped from 16% in 2019 to 34% in 2020. This has remained stagnant in 2021, while men’s usage continued to grow.
The report also highlighted two broad socio-demographic groups experiencing the mobile usage dynamics differently – The affluent women who adopted smartphones and mobile internet in the past two years found their income levels and digital skills improving, while women who are less affluent and have lower education levels found they were still being digitally excluded, with limited job prospects, access to government services, income and ability to save for high-end smartphone models.
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