NEW DELHI: During the lockdown, the number of smartphones in rural India surged more than double, as per the latest Annual Survey for Education Report (ASER). In 2018, around 36 per cent of households had a smartphone, which increased to 74.8 per cent in 2022, said the report.
The percentage of households with smartphones, as well as internet connectivity, is around 88 per cent, observe the survey.
“ASER 2021 estimated that 67.6 per cent of households have smartphones. Within one-year smartphones have spread wider and further. Mobile phones and smartphones are a recent new normal for rural families,” said Madhav Chavan, president and member of the Board of Directors, of Pratham Education Foundation.
Statewise, the proliferation of smart mobile phones has risen exponentially in rural Jharkhand. In rural Jharkhand, 61.7% of rural families owned smartphones in 2022, more than thrice in comparison to 2018 (17.6%). However, the proportion of smart mobile phones is still lower than in most other states.
Even while the percentage of smartphones has improved in rural Odisha, it still lags behind other states in this category. In 2018, merely 21.9 % of rural Odisha had smartphones, which increased to 64.1 % in 2022, highlighted the survey.
In rural West Bengal, 27.7 per cent of the population had smartphones in 2018, which increased to 65.7 per cent in 2022, which is the third lowest.
According to the ASER, there are total 7 states where fewer than 70% of rural dwellers have smartphones — West Bengal (65.7%), Uttar Pradesh (67.8%), Tripura (68.8%), Madhya Pradesh (67.2%), Bihar (64.1%) Odisha (64.1 %) and Jharkhand(61.7 %).
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Nationally, merely there are seven states — Gujarat (96%), Himachal Pradesh (95%), Manipur (91.9%), Kerala (97.6%), Mizoram (94.9%), Punjab (91.2%) and Sikkim (93.7%) — where more than 90 % of rural dwellers have smartphones.