Inequalities creating economic barriers to owning mobile phones in India: Factors responsible for the gender digital divide

In India, men own around 70% of mobile phones, creating a gender digital divide for the most widely owned information and communication technology (ICT) in the world. This study investigates the factors responsible for the inability of 245 female slum-dwellers in India earning less than $2 a day to own a mobile phone. Open, axial and selective coding of survey responses shows that socio-cultural, economic, demographic, psychological, communication-related, and health related inequalities in the lives of the respondents create eight economic barriers precluding respondents from owning some of the least expensive mobile phones worth $15 or so on installments of $1 a month.

This article is published in the Information Development journal. The article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference.