Rural Vidarbha’s Digital Struggle Amid Urban Tech Triumph

thenewsdirt
Jul 8
6 min read

The digital transformation sweeping Maharashtra reveals a troubling divide between urban prosperity and rural exclusion.

While cities across Vidarbha celebrate remarkable achievements in Digital Public Infrastructure adoption, tribal and rural districts remain largely disconnected from India's digital revolution.

This disparity exposes fundamental barriers preventing the country's most vulnerable communities from accessing digital services that urban residents now consider essential.

Urban Vidarbha Achieves Digital Payment Success

Urban centres throughout the Vidarbha region have achieved impressive milestones in digital infrastructure utilisation.

Nagpur Metro exemplifies this transformation, with 41% of commuters using digital payment modes by March 2024, generating over ₹17 crore through UPI, POS, and NCMC platforms.

The Maharashtra government's data reveals robust digital payment adoption in cities like Nagpur and Amravati, where smartphone penetration exceeds 80% and internet connectivity approaches universal coverage.

The Open Network for Digital Commerce has gained significant traction in urban markets throughout Vidarbha, with local businesses increasingly leveraging the platform for expanded reach.

DigiLocker adoption in urban Maharashtra shows steady growth, with the state contributing substantially to the platform's 33.6 million registered users by 2019. UPI transactions in urban retail establishments across the region demonstrate consistent growth, reflecting the seamless integration of digital payment systems into daily commerce.

These urban success stories mask a troubling reality in rural districts. Five districts of Gadchiroli, Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Wardha, and Amravati house 2.74 lakh tribal people, representing over 40% of Maharashtra's Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups population.

These communities face multiple layers of exclusion from digital services that urban residents take for granted.

Rural Vidarbha Faces Severe Digital Infrastructure Gaps

The infrastructure challenges in rural areas form the most significant barrier to digital inclusion. Out of 1,427 PVTG habitations in the region, 458 remain without mobile network coverage, leaving approximately one-third of tribal settlements digitally isolated.

The situation becomes more dire when considering electricity access, 16,916 tribal households across these districts still lack a power supply, with Yavatmal district alone accounting for over 15,800 households without electricity connections.

The geographical terrain of districts like Gadchiroli compounds these mobile connectivity challenges. With 76% of the district covered by forest, the region has the maximum "very dense" forest area among any district in India.

This landscape creates natural barriers to infrastructure development, making it expensive and logistically complex to establish mobile towers and internet connectivity.

During monsoons, some areas experience months without electricity, yet households continue receiving bills of approximately ₹150 monthly despite minimal usage.

The mobile network situation proves equally challenging. BSNL's initiative to establish 60 mobile towers in Naxal-affected areas of Vidarbha, including 37 in Gadchiroli, highlights the security and connectivity challenges these regions face.

Mobile connectivity issues create cascading problems for digital service delivery across health, education, and financial inclusion programmes.

Digital literacy emerges as another significant obstacle. Rural Maharashtra shows computer ownership at merely 4% of households compared to 23% in urban areas.

The digital divide becomes more pronounced when examining internet usage patterns. Only 24% of rural Indian households have internet access, compared to 66% penetration in cities.

Language barriers further complicate digital adoption. Tribal communities often speak distinct languages like Pawari, Bhilori, and Ahirani, which receive limited support on digital platforms.

Digital content and services remain predominantly designed in widely spoken languages, excluding many tribal populations from understanding or utilising these resources. This linguistic exclusion affects everything from government service applications to e-commerce platforms, leaving tribal users unable to navigate digital interfaces effectively.

Economic Barriers Prevent Digital Financial Inclusion

Economic factors create additional barriers to digital adoption across rural Vidarbha. Rural incomes struggle to support the costs associated with smartphones and data plans necessary for accessing the Digital Public Infrastructure.

Many tribal households find themselves in poverty cycles that prevent investment in digital technologies, even when infrastructure exists.

The financial burden extends beyond initial device costs. Internet connectivity charges, combined with unreliable electricity supplies that require alternative charging arrangements, create ongoing expenses that rural households often cannot sustain.

These economic constraints force communities to prioritise immediate survival needs over digital connectivity, perpetuating their exclusion from digital banking and payment services.

Various government initiatives attempt to address these challenges with mixed results.

The Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan has provided electricity to 2,395 tribal homes across Maharashtra districts including Chandrapur, Yavatmal, and others. Under the Digital Bharat Nidhi schemes, 1,018 mobile towers have been sanctioned for PVTG habitations with an estimated expenditure of ₹1,014 crore.

However, implementation often fails to match policy intentions. The BharatNet project, designed to provide broadband connectivity to gram panchayats, has experienced significant delays, with completion now expected by 2025.

Even where infrastructure arrives, maintenance issues plague rural installations. The five-year tenure limitations for operations and maintenance under Decentralised Distributed Generation schemes often result in systems becoming inoperative once contracts expire.

ONDC faces particular adoption challenges in rural areas despite its potential benefits for digital commerce.

Rural businesses struggle with digital literacy requirements for platform navigation, while language barriers prevent effective catalogue creation and customer communication.

The platform's reliance on consistent internet connectivity creates insurmountable obstacles in areas with patchy network coverage.

DigiLocker adoption encounters similar barriers. The platform's dependence on internet penetration across India becomes problematic when approximately 50% of users with internet access lack digital literacy skills.

Aadhaar enrollment issues, including unavailable mobile numbers or name format discrepancies, further hinder DigiLocker usage among tribal populations. Additionally, the platform's limited acceptance by all government and private institutions reduces its practical utility for rural users.

Cultural Resistance and Trust Issues Hamper Digital Adoption in Vidarbha

Security concerns compound adoption challenges in tribal areas. Rural communities express heightened anxiety about digital fraud and data privacy, particularly given their limited understanding of cybersecurity measures.

The fear of online scams and financial losses creates resistance to digital payment adoption, even when infrastructure supports such services.

Cultural factors also influence technology adoption. Traditional tribal societies often prefer face-to-face transactions and maintain scepticism toward digital alternatives.

This cultural preference for cash transactions, deeply embedded in rural societies, requires sustained community engagement and education efforts to overcome.

Despite these challenges, some success stories emerge from the region. Rohini village in Dhule district demonstrates how targeted digital initiatives can transform tribal communities from which Vidarbha can learn.

Through focused efforts, the village achieved 100% digital literacy despite overall tribal literacy rates of only 45%. The gram panchayat now uses information and communication technology for service delivery and enables virtual participation in Gram Sabha meetings.

Similar initiatives in Palghar district have trained tribal women to access government services online, pay electricity bills digitally, and obtain satbara records through internet platforms. These localised successes indicate that with appropriate support structures, tribal communities can embrace digital technologies effectively.

The contrast between urban achievement and rural struggles illustrates the complexity of India's digital inclusion challenge.

While cities achieve impressive adoption rates for Digital Public Infrastructure services, rural and tribal districts remain trapped by infrastructure deficits, economic constraints, and cultural barriers that prevent meaningful participation in the digital economy.

The success stories from villages like Rohini provide hope, but they remain isolated examples in a landscape where digital exclusion continues to define the experience of may of tribal and rural residents across Vidarbha.