By Krishna Jha
There had been tall promises made by the RSS-BJP government as early as in 2019 to offer online infrastructure and Internet connectivity through the ‘Digital India’ programme with a vision to transform the country into a digitally-empowered society with a rich knowledge economy. It was to be ready for public access by 2022. More than half of 2023 is over, but country is yet to see the fulfilment of the ambitious goal.
Kerala has turned the dreams into reality and has become the first state in the country to enter the process of fourth revolution, next to electronic, the transition to digitalization, which ensures the universal digital access. Universal internet connections would be provided through Fibre Optic Network project. An estimated 20 lakh below poverty line families will get it free. It is to narrow down the digital divide. Three years back, United Nations had passed a resolution recognizing internet access as basic human right.
The very fact that through productive forces, socio economic formations come to existence, ensures that the basic right to internet is the right to enter the digital world which knows no limits. It opens up the world based not on production, but knowledge. The electronic movement is more brain like and almost similar to consciousness than to the physical labour process. Machines are getting identified with the processes in the brain. It is not the means of the individual labour. It is labour itself, of the worker, who is a mediating factor.
The significance of this fact is far reaching, with implications influencing present and future both. Karl Marx had said more than two centuries back that the fixed capital in its use value goes beyond the definition of capital. It is not only that. Under the impact of electronic revolution which Kerala is undergoing, new horizons are opening and they are yet to be defined. It is in fact quantum revolution under which fundamental transformations are going on, where commodity and capital as also the labour are getting transformed since signals, rays, signs and images are not the part of modern world, which is stepping out of it.
The setting up of the vast infrastructural context, that would be providing internet, even to the far off parts of the state like tribal areas in Wayanad and other places, away from the mainstream information flow has been already accomplished. The responsibility of cabling, stretching to 34,961 kms, has been rendered to the infrastructure of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). KFON is joint venture of the KSEB and Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL). KFON has been granted an infrastructure provider (IP) license by DoT which approved it as an internet service provider.
The blue print says that 14000 BPL families spread over 140 assembly constituencies are targeted presently with hundred families in each of them. Along with all this the government has also launched a digital literacy programme from the lowest levels in the society through local bodies to ascertain that every member of the society is equipped to access basic services through the internet. Each of the household would be entitled to 1.5 GB data every day at 15 Mbps speed. In the second phase, internet services would be available at affordable prices. All these steps ensure that Kerala will initiate the change from below, at the ground level, in the context of access and opportunities. Free internet connections for BPL families and government institutions are just a share of Rs 1548 crore KFON project, the rest would be monetized. In 2022, the LDF government had formed a committee to look into the possibilities of monetization of the network. KFON has a total of 48 fibres out of which 22 would be used by the network itself, and KSEB also using some. Rest can be leased out.
In fact the state of Kerala has been the only one among those few who dared to opt for higher connectivity. Slowly it has evolved and now plans are there to equip even those from the lower depths.
The digital access is to be made available universally. In Kerala, the government offices have already introduced digital services and single window portals. Internet use varies considerably by education level, which can accentuate socio-economic inequalities. Differences in education also affect online activities. Remote work and education are the main purposes of Internet use among households whose heads have at least tertiary education. Meanwhile, instant messaging is the most prevalent use among households with a respondent with only primary education.
There are also those slow mobility regions where only internet can provide communication like in the COVID days. It was only digital technology that came to assist in those remote areas.
It has been shown that higher connectivity to the Internet is related to higher labour force participation, employment mobility, job creation, and then the overall job growth. Internet access also enables access to critical public services like education, hospitals and other medical facilities, and finally the basic essential like strengthening economic and social resilience. (IPA Service)