Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Access to digital technology is crucial to address poverty and socio-economic disparities along with shaping economic opportunities, educational outcomes, and overall standard of living. On contrary, the digital divide limits access to essential amenities and socio-economic outcomes. It is well-recognized that the digital divide compounded the pre-existing disadvantages and deepened poverty and disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, one may hypothesize that strengthening digital access would help in overcoming socio-economic barriers and promoting inclusive development. In this context, the objective of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of access to digital devices and connectivity on the poverty levels of Indian households. The study uses household-level secondary data sourced from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey of the Government of India. Based on the results of the estimated binary logit and probit models, the paper finds a significant negative influence of digital access, geographic location, economic status, basic amenities, and household head’s education on the incidence of poverty, whereas households belonging to socially disadvantaged groups are more likely to live in poverty vis-à-vis the general category households. In addition, state-level factors like the number of fair price shops and social sector expenditure also lower the likelihood of household poverty. The findings, therefore, suggest for greater emphasis on improvement in households’ digital access and basic amenities along with strengthening government support systems for lowering the incidence of poverty in Indian households.