Digital Access in Bangladesh
I decided to do my paper on digital access over the country of Bangladesh. If I am being honest, before this year I probably would not have given Bangladesh a second thought and might have picked a country that I am at least a little bit familiar with. However, the reason I picked Bangladesh is because I now have a friend that is from there. My friend is an international student who is in the SAU Master’s Program right now, and we have gotten to talk a lot about differences between the United States and Bangladesh. Because of this, I thought it would be interesting to do an in depth look into the country’s digital access.
Bangladesh is a South Asian country located in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The country is one of the most populous countries in the world (with a current population of over 170 million people) and the religion is predominately Muslim. Bangladesh’s government is a parliamentary system with a prime minister, but they also have a president that is elected by national assembly. The current prime minister is Sheikh Hasina who was elected in 2009. She is the longest serving prime minister in Bangladesh history. Mohammad Abdul Hamid was elected president of Bangladesh in 2013 for his first term, and again in 2018 for his second term.
Bangladesh actually has a high rate of technology use and digital access. However, not everyone has the same access to the same types of devices. While 97% of the country is covered by a mobile signal, not all of that 97% has access to the same signal (like 2g, 3g, or 4g). In fact, about 24% of the country lacks access to basic electricity. This is obviously a huge obstacle in mobile phone usage and access to mobile signals.
While 74% of people ages 15-65 have mobile devices in Bangladesh, only 24% have smartphones. This greatly affects the digital access in the country because there are some features and services that are only available through the Internet and apps on smartphones. This is a good example of how, even though the numbers look great at first, you can uncover major issues in the digital access of Bangladesh. This lack of access is also playing into the class structure of the country. When certain services are only available on more expensive and higher quality devices, the poor and low income classes are now left out from a whole section of society.
When it comes to affordability, the poor and marginalized community is affected even more. bKash is one of Bangladesh’s main leading mobile money providers. In comparison to mobile providers in other countries, bKash is pretty inexpensive. However, Bangladesh citizens who are living at or below the poverty line are still less likely to use it. As of 2018, “40% of non-mobile money users say they do not have enough money to transact to begin with”. Most times, unless certain digital services are accessed through free public WiFi, these services are not being utilized or purchased by the poor community.
Internet awareness and ability are two things that are majorly lacking in Bangladesh. 67% of people have no awareness and 41% do not know what mobile money is or what its use is. This not only hurts the poor community’s digital access, but it also means they are not aware of things such as m-health services (the use of mobile and wireless technologies to support the achievement of health objectives) that can benefit them in life. 67% of Bangladeshis do not know how to use the Internet and 27% do not know how to use a basic mobile phone. When it comes to more advanced smartphones, the percentages are even less. 70% of people have the ability to make phone calls, but only 49% have some ability to send and receive texts. Only 9% can fully perform financial transactions on the mobile phone.
While these statistics are pretty sad and disappointing, Bangladesh seems to be getting ready for a rise in digital access population very soon. According to a 2020 report from the World Economic Forum, the government has recognized the need for digital inclusion in the country. They said that the government has designed digital services to be relevant for three specific groups: “digital natives – younger, tech-savvy, generations growing up with technology; digital adapters – middle-aged individuals who have adopted technology; and outliers – the minority who stay away from technology.” As of 2020, Bangladesh had issued over 100 million digital ID’s to citizens. This is all a part of the Digital Bangladesh Vision that was established by the prime minister with “the ultimate goal being the overall improvement of the daily lifestyle of the general population.” Overall, I think Bangladesh is heading towards a great direction in the aspect of digital access, but they still have a long way to go.
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