For A Digital Stimulus

Budget for growth and empowerment through digital access and connectivity

- Jyoti Parikh

What can next Monday’s Budget do to ensure growth and green recovery, while taking socially enabling measures for people to move on from the pandemic and go beyond?

The pandemic showed us how important it is to ensure digital connectivity for all in order to be even a basically functional society. Those who could shop online could ensure basic needs. Children who could log onto the internet studied, while the remaining missed an entire year’s education. Even those who had one smartphone for the family had to make choices whether it should be with the head of the family for making a living or the woman of the house or with which child, if they have two school going children.

Professionals did business and academics held webinars. The privileged ones felt secure by remaining in touch with close relatives and friends, whether in the neighbourhood or abroad, without emotional deprivation and worries. On the other hand, those lacking access suffered the most losses of livelihoods, education, health treatments; they suffered loneliness and worried about their families.

The pandemic showed the huge difference between the digital haves and have-nots. It’s clear that we need to move towards comprehensive digital connectivity for equal access to opportunities for all. This needs to be the goal even beyond the pandemic, when our lives become normal. Why?