ICT Accessibility in Knowledge Societies: The Internet as a Double-edged Sword

The internet has become the backbone of how we learn, work, and share information. In a knowledge society-where ideas, data, and digital skills drive the economy-being online is no longer a luxury but a prerequisite for participation. Yet the same technology that connects billions also leaves billions behind. UNESCO defines a genuine knowledge society through four principles: cultural diversity, equal access to education, universal access to information, and freedom of expression. The internet promises all four. The problem is that access to it is deeply unequal. This is what makes ICT infrastructure a double-edged sword: it can democratise knowledge or deepen existing inequalities, depending entirely on who gets to use it.

The internet as an engine of knowledge sharing
Why infrastructure alone changes everything
The other edge: how access creates inequality
Affordability and the cost barrier
Geographical isolation and last-mile gaps
Socioeconomic and gender disparities
The language and literacy barrier
The case for universal ICT access
How universal access is being pursued
Why access alone is not enough

At its best, the internet is the most powerful tool for spreading knowledge ever built. A student in a small town can access the same online lectures as one in a metropolitan city. Farmers can check crop prices, patients can consult doctors through telemedicine, and citizens can download official documents without visiting a government office. The infrastructure that makes this possible-optical fibre cables, mobile towers, data centres, and broadband networks-forms the physical foundation of the knowledge economy.

India has made remarkable progress here. As of mid-2025, the country’s internet subscriber base crossed 100 crore, driven largely by affordable wireless data. India now has among the lowest mobile data rates in the world, which has pulled hundreds of millions online in barely a decade. Programmes like Digital India have pushed e-governance, digital payments, and online education into everyday life.

Why infrastructure alone changes everything

When connectivity reaches a community, it unlocks a chain of opportunities. Consider the BharatNet project, one of the world’s largest rural broadband initiatives. By connecting village councils with high-speed fibre, it enables telemedicine, digital classrooms, online banking, and access to land records and Aadhaar services in places that previously had none. Platforms like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and DigiLocker show how public digital infrastructure can promote inclusive access to essential services. The internet, in this sense, is a knowledge multiplier-it turns raw information into usable opportunity.

The other edge: how access creates inequality

Here is the uncomfortable truth. The internet does not automatically reduce inequality-it can amplify it. When essential services like education, jobs, and banking move online, anyone without reliable access is pushed further to the margins. The knowledge divide is an extension of the digital divide, separating those who can access and use information from those who cannot. As economic and social life migrates online, this becomes a self-reinforcing cycle where the already disadvantaged fall even further behind.

The scale of exclusion remains enormous. According to the International Telecommunication Union, around 2.6 billion people-roughly a third of the global population-remained offline in 2025. The divide is not only about whether cables reach a village. It is about affordability, literacy, language, and social position.

Affordability and the cost barrier

Affordability is one of the sharpest barriers. Even where networks exist, the cost of a smartphone and a data plan can be unaffordable for low-income households. In several developing economies, the price of a basic device and connectivity can consume a significant share of monthly income, forcing families to choose between staying connected and meeting basic needs. A network that reaches your village means little if you cannot afford the device to use it.

Geographical isolation and last-mile gaps

Geographical isolation makes infrastructure expensive and slow to build. Laying fibre across hilly terrain, dense forests, and border regions is logistically difficult and costly. This is precisely why India created the Universal Service Obligation Fund-now restructured as the Digital Bharat Nidhi-to finance connectivity in areas where private operators see no profit. Even so, hard data shows the gap: only about 7.2% of households have fibre-optic connections, revealing how far the last mile still has to go.

Socioeconomic and gender disparities

Socioeconomic disparities shape who benefits even within connected regions. Surveys reveal sharp gaps along the lines of income, caste, and geography. India’s broadband penetration reached 76.3%, but rural, low-income, and historically marginalised communities still face large deficits in digital skills such as emailing, using spreadsheets, and conducting online transactions. Historically disadvantaged groups often face compounded barriers in accessing digital resources.

The gender gap is especially stark. Roughly 79% of Indian men own mobile phones compared to only 43% of women, and just 24% of women have access to smartphones. Device ownership figures from national surveys echo this: urban youth ownership stands far above rural, and male ownership well above female. When half the population struggles to get online, the knowledge society it builds is incomplete by design.

The language and literacy barrier

There is also a quieter barrier: language. Despite 22 officially recognised languages and hundreds of dialects, much online content remains available primarily in English, locking out the majority who are not English-proficient. Access to a device and a signal is not the same as access to relevant, usable knowledge. This is why experts increasingly distinguish between a simple access gap, a usage gap, and a skill gap-you can be online and still excluded.

The case for universal ICT access

If the internet is essential for participating in modern life, then access begins to look less like a service and more like a right. The idea of a right to internet access holds that people must be able to connect in order to exercise their freedom of expression and other fundamental rights, and that governments have a responsibility to keep access broadly available. This thinking traces back to the World Summit on the Information Society, which committed to building a people-centred, inclusive information society where everyone can create, access, and share knowledge.

UNESCO frames this through its Internet Universality and ROAM-X principles, which call for an internet that is rights-based, open, accessible to all, and governed through multi-stakeholder participation. The “X” covers cross-cutting concerns like gender equality and emerging technologies. The goal is not just to connect more people, but to make sure the internet actively builds inclusive knowledge societies rather than fragmenting into a “splinternet” of haves and have-nots.

How universal access is being pursued

Universal access is not just an ideal-it is being implemented through concrete policy. India’s approach combines infrastructure, literacy, and last-mile delivery. BharatNet, funded to ensure non-discriminatory access to ICT services in rural areas, lays the physical foundation. The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan has trained tens of millions in digital literacy, while the National Broadband Mission-now in its second iteration-accelerates network expansion. Common Service Centres, run by Village Level Entrepreneurs, act as physical access points where people who do not own a device can still use banking, telemedicine, and government services.

Why access alone is not enough

The newer thinking is that connectivity is only the first step. India has moved close to near-universal access, but meaningful use remains unequal, which is why analysts argue for a second-generation push focused on ownership, skills, and autonomy. Universal access, properly understood, means more than a signal in every village. It means affordable devices, content in local languages, digital literacy taught in schools, and online spaces that are safe-especially for women, who often face harassment that drives them offline.

For a knowledge society to be genuinely inclusive, all of these have to advance together. UNESCO treats access to information as a fundamental freedom and a key pillar of inclusive knowledge societies, tied directly to the Sustainable Development Goals. The double-edged nature of the internet is ultimately a policy choice. Left to the market, it tends to widen gaps. Guided by deliberate investment in universal access, it can close them.

What do you think? If essential services like education, banking, and healthcare are increasingly delivered online, should reliable internet access be treated as a fundamental right rather than a paid service? And in a country as linguistically diverse as India, what matters more for true digital inclusion-expanding the network further, or making existing access genuinely usable through local-language content and digital skills?

References

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ICT Accessibility in Knowledge Societies: The Internet as a Double-edged Sword

Table of Contents

The internet as an engine of knowledge sharing 🔗

Why infrastructure alone changes everything 🔗

The other edge: how access creates inequality 🔗

Affordability and the cost barrier 🔗

Geographical isolation and last-mile gaps 🔗

Socioeconomic and gender disparities 🔗

The language and literacy barrier 🔗

The case for universal ICT access 🔗

How universal access is being pursued 🔗

Why access alone is not enough 🔗