This article appeared on Kuzuzangpo.com, one of the weblogs originating from Bhutan
Although Bhutan entered late into the world of Information and communications technology the progress it has made over the years is unprecedented. The coming of television and internet in June 1999 and then cellular services in June 2003 have undoubtedly made our lives even better. BBS has launched its nationwide television coverage very recently, and we have heard people saying, “…time has come for the foreign channels to take a back seat,” in the districts. Bhutan Telecom expects to establish at least 10 telephone lines in all 201 Gewogs in the country by end of 9th FYP. The number of ICT training institutes and private ISPs are springing up, ICT-ization of schools is in place, launch of e-post services by the Bhutan Post reaches the message faster than the ordinary mails, Government is spending more and more on ICTs, ICT business is booming and of late we have more number of students going online. These are all sure sign of heading towards an informed society. In other words, a step closer to bridging the ‘digital divide’.
What is this digital divide now? In laity it is the perceived gap between those who have access to ‘latest information technologies’ and those who do not- have and have-nots. As part of requirement for my PG programme few years back I did my dissertation on ‘Digital divide in South Asia’. I carried out a thorough research on the status in the region. Obviously the lack of accessibility to tele-communication facilities, electricity, computers, internet, education, and skilled human resources among others were some of the factors detrimental in bridging the digital gap.
In a country like ours where it is characterized by harsh and difficult geographical terrain reaching out computers and internet facilities is not an ultimate solution to bridge the so called digital divide. More than half of our people are illiterate and almost all of them depend totally on subsistence farming. Even if there is a magic wand to convert a wooden box into a computer set people would not want to go for it. Computers cannot generate food and electricity.
So if the digital divide is all about having access to information through the various technologies then promoting mobile phones would be way better in achieving the goal faster than reaching computers and internet.
Internet came with a boom and the world expected to solve every burning problems. More than a decade later problems remained the same. Of course internet has its own beauty of sharing information but it fails to deliver where there is no electricity, telecommunication facilities, and if one cannot read and write.
Imagine this.
Aum Tsumpi comes out from her makeshift camp in Laya to milk her dozen yaks, with crude untidy aluminum bucket in her left hand and a mobile phone in her right hand. She dials her husband who had gone to Thimphu to sell their dairy products in a weekend vegetable market. She asks him about the returns and reminds him to get a pair school shoe for their son. Memi Changlu in Layshingkhar, Pemagatshel calls his friend in SamdrupJongkhar. He asks him the latest floor price of oranges at the auction. Knowing that price is good he immediately decides to pluck his oranges and head for SamdrupJongkar. Zangpo in Bangkok is calling his father in Bikhar, Tashigang. “Hello, Hello….na thana mo (can you hear me). Father hears vaguely….ebi ya…kota melam mo (who is this? Is it melam)? Gila apa (yes father) and so the conversation goes…..jigi ama ga mobile kuntuwamey, ngon pa mo? (I have sent it across one mobile phone for mother, did you get it?).
The Shingkhar Lauri Gup, in the midst of his meeting with his people forgets one important issue that he was asked by his Dzongda to inform calls up his counterpart in the other Gewog. Without moving an inch from where he is seated he gets the information.
“Wai Neypo,” calls Thinley, a Brokpaman from Sakten to his fellow mate who had lately come from Trashigang, “Radhi dhang Tashigang barka lam tey chethpa mala mo?” (I hope there is no road block in between Radhi and Tashigang.
See, the beauty of mobile phones. One doesn’t need to be a literate person. And there is no need for electricity unlike internet. The only that is needed is the network. Of course there is a need for electricity to charge batteries but that can be done with solar power as well. Our government has taken initiative in providing solar panels, some free of cost and some at subsidized rates, to the far flung villages.
The mobile frenzy is fast picking up in Bhutan. According to annual ICT report 2004-05, at the end of 2004, in just a span of one and half years, the number of mobile users has climbed close to 19,000. By the end of 2005, the B-mobile said that numbers would surpass the fixed line users (I do not have the figures). It has impacted both old and young, monks and the laymen, educated and the uneducated, students and the office goers, vegetable vendors and the businessmen, cab drivers and the truck drivers. We see this in Thimphu and time is not far enough for the other Dzonkhags to follow suit. It is a healthy trend.
Mobile phones are getting cheaper by the day. Our village people are already rushing to embrace this trend. I wasn’t surprised when my brother in-law in Tashigang, who is uneducated, asked me to get one for him. I am sure you would have come across the same.
So will real digital divide be the gap between those who have mobile phones and those who have not.
Instead of making a dubious attempt on other infrastructures to bridge the gap I think our government should liberalize telecom markets, encourage competitions to make it affordable to the commonest of people. According to an article in the economist magazine, the mobile phones raise long term growth rates, their impact is twice as big in developing nations as in developed ones, and that an extra ten phones per 100 people in a typical developing country increases GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points.
The names of the people featured in this article are fictitious and any resemblance to them or their character is purely coincidental.
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