49% Indian Women Don’t See Any Need To Access Internet; 70% Of Indian Internet Users Are Male: Google

When it comes to Internet usage in India, we are still a male dominated society. As per a Google report on the usage of technology and Internet among Indian women, it was found that 49% of the surveyed women couldn’t find any need to access Internet. And nearly 70% of all Internet users are males.

These findings are part of the Google report titled “Women and Technology”, where Google interviewed 828 women aged between 8 years to 55 years and tried to gauge the usage of Internet among the fairer sex.

As per the report, women constitute only 30% of the overall population which surfs Internet.

Privacy Issues While Surfing Internet

The report extracted a very crucial finding: It is the privacy issues which is proving to be the biggest constraint for Indian women when it comes to accessing Internet.

Several married women admitted that they feared that their in-laws would become angry if they find out that they are using Internet!

Majority of those women who didn’t use Internet said that if they get more privacy, or their own computer or smartphone, then they will use Internet more often compared to current levels.

Some other major issues which are stopping them from accessing Internet include: time constraints, connectivity issues and affordability of accessing Internet.

Women Who Surf Internet Are Earning More

While evaluating the demographic and economic details of women netizens, the research by Google discovered that those women who surf Internet regularly are self-dependent, and have a higher income compared to those who don’t surf Internet.

Majority of women Internet users tend to be single, young and college students. Meanwhile majority of those women who don’t use Internet or doesn’t seem to find any reason to do so, are married, slightly older and have lesser education.

The good thing is that, 32% of all non-Internet users among women have plans to regularly surf Internet within next 6 months and when it comes to women between 18 to 29, then 46% of all non-Internet users will become Internet users soon.

Sandeep Menon, Country Head Marketing for Google India pleaded to all women in India to surf more Internet, as he said, “There are large number of educated women in India with Internet access in their households, but they still do not use the Internet. We are making an appeal to their children to hold their mother’s hand as she discovers a new world online.”

Additionally, Google will also release a short film, which will encourage and inspire all Indian women to become more Internet savvy, and use this medium to gain empowerment.

Housewives Outshine Working Women

Meanwhile, in a separate research conducted by IAMAI, it was revealed that in terms of Internet surfing, Indian housewives have outshined working women by long margin.

IAMAI researched the women who have chosen an unlimited Internet plan at their home or mobile phone, and surprisingly, 26% of them are housewives compared to 20% who are working women. School students constitute 25% share meanwhile college students are at 20%.

Considering that working women receive internet at their offices and in some cases, an internet enabled phone from their office, this metrics can be low. But the usage of Internet among housewives is certainly heartening and a good indicator of the expanse of Internet in India.