Women in Cyberspace - A Public Policy Perspective Towards Achieving Viksit Bharat

Digital divide is an established concept of the differential access to digital resources. However, the concept has emerged to include the second and the third levels of digital divide – the possession of digital skills and the ability to gain meaningful outcomes from the participation in digital sphere. Thus, digital divide has become a wholesome concept to include access, skills and outcome. Cyberspace is the digital “public sphere” which offers the opportunity to network and enjoy all the fundamental human rights. But, it has also been the medium of exclusion, discrimination and harassment for women. Cyberspace as a digital public sphere has to be accessible, safe and provide equal opportunity to all. This paper examines the experiences of women in the cyberspace in terms of access, skill and tangible outcomes from an intersectionalist perspective utilizing the theories of inequality. It adopts a mixed-method approach utilizing both the survey based quantitative method and interview based qualitative method. It is obtained that the social inequalities not only reinforce but also exacerbates the digital inequalities. Thus, from a policy perspective it becomes crucial that a gender lens be adopted to overcome the existing social inequalities in the cyberspace. Only then, we can fulfill the dream of Viksit Bharat in this digital century.