Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Inequalities Creating Economic Barriers To Owning Mobile Phones In India: Factors Responsible For The Gender Digital Divide, Devendra Potnis

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most widely owned information and communication technology (ICT) in the world. This study investigates the factors responsible for the inability of 245 female slum-dwellers in India earning less than $2 a day to own a mobile phone. Open, axial and selective coding of survey responses shows that socio-cultural, economic, demographic, psychological, communication-related, and health related inequalities in the lives of the respondents create eight economic barriers precluding respondents from owning some of the least expensive mobile phones worth $15 or so on installments of …