Recent data from the Multiple Indicator Survey (MIS) report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has stated that 84 per cent Indians cannot send an email with attachment.
The NSSO survey, which was conducted in 2020-21 with an overall sample size of over 11 lakh respondents across the country by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), further suggests that only 31.1 percent of Indian men aged between 15-29 years know how to send emails with attachment.
Further, only 45.7 percent know how to use copy and paste and just 15.3 percent know how to connect or install new devices.
In the same age group, ICT knowledge is even lesser in women. Only 22.1 percent know how to send emails with attachments, 32.7 percent know how to use copy and paste and only 10 percent know how to connect and install new devices.
The study asked participants to self-report whether they could execute nine tasks on a computer in order to gauge their ICT skills. The number of respondents who fell within this age range was not disclosed in the report.
For this, the respondents were asked nine questions, and in all these nine parameters Indian men and women aged between 15-29 years did not succeed above 48 percent.
Data in the Unified District Information System for Education by the Ministry of Education for 2020-2021 (also the range in which the NSSO survey was conducted) suggests that the total enrolment in 2020-21 from primary to higher secondary levels of school education was a little over 25.38 crore.
The total number of schools in India stood at over 15 lakh in 2020-2021, and further, computers were only available in 41.3 percent of schools in 2020-21 (this was at 38.5 percent of schools in 2019-20). When it comes to the internet, it was available in 24.5 percent of schools in 2020-21, and only in 22.3 percent of schools in 2019-20.
