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Digital Empowerment of Rural Women and SDG 5: A Study on access to Mobile, Internet and Government Schemes

  • Dr S. Abdul ThahaAssociate Professor Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad

Keywords:

rural women; digital inclusion; mobile ownership; government schemes; SDG 5.

Abstract

Digital inclusion is increasingly central to gender equality, but the presence of a phone does not by itself establish control over technology, access to entitlements or greater decision-making power. This paper examines how mobile possession, internet engagement, functional skills and interaction with government programmes are reported by 225 rural women surveyed through a structured questionnaire, using the resources–agency–achievements perspective of empowerment (Kabeer, 1999; Rotondi et al., 2020). A descriptive, non-causal analysis compares ownership with recent use, examines schooling-related differences and identifies the main reported difficulties in everyday digital engagement.
Among the 225 respondents, 172 (76.4%) indicate mobile use in the previous three months, whereas 109 (48.4%) indicate personal mobile ownership and 82 (36.4%) smartphone ownership. Recent internet use appears in 130 respondents (57.8%). Scheme awareness is recorded for 150 (66.7%), online application for 68 (30.2%) and government transfer receipt during the previous twelve months for 49 (21.8%).
The analysis suggests that a meaningful SDG 5 approach must distinguish an available connection from usable, trusted and independently controlled access. Practical digital training, affordable connectivity, local-language services and privacy-conscious application support emerge as priorities for subsequent field evaluation. Because the survey data are self-reported and cross-sectional, the findings are presented as descriptive patterns rather than causal or population-level estimates.

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How to cite

Dr S. Abdul Thaha (2026). Digital Empowerment of Rural Women and SDG 5: A Study on access to Mobile, Internet and Government Schemes. International Journal for Research in Education, 15(11), 10-24. https://doi.org/10.63345/ijre.v15.i11.IJRE1126002

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This article is open access, published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. Copyright remains with the authors.