Digital divide widens: State ranks 26th inschool infra access, lags amid nat’l push

Bhopal: Across Madhya Pradesh’s sun‑bleached towns and sleepy villages, the promise of smart classrooms collides with a stubborn reality: the state’s digital infrastructure in schools still lags far behind the national average, revealing a widening gap between India’s high‑performing outliers and the Hindi heartland. The latest Niti Ayog report casts a sober light on this divide, showing that despite incremental gains, MP’s schools remain tethered to outdated norms in an age when every child is expected to be plugged in.

Only 59.2% of Madhya Pradesh’s schools have computers, placing the state 26th among states and Union Territories, well short of the 64.7% national benchmark. Internet access, even more telling, stands at 45.7%—more than 17 points below the national 63.5%—and again ranks 26th. That digital deficit persists even as smaller, wealthier states vault ahead: Lakshadweep, Delhi, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha all boast connectivity and hardware figures that look like a different country altogether.

In the Hindi belt, Madhya Pradesh hovers near the middle, not at the front. Uttar Pradesh edges ahead on computers but still stumbles on the internet; Rajasthan trails on hardware yet outpaces on broadband, while Haryana surges ahead. In the south, Kerala and Tamil Nadu showcase what strong state‑level digital policy can do. The data tells a simple story: computers in Madhya Pradesh arrive, but the network to animate them often does not, leaving machines idle and students disconnected from coding, online assessments, and the wider digital world.

Experts warn that this gap could quietly erode students’ competitiveness in the long run, especially as the national push for e‑learning intensifies. At the bottom, Bihar, West Bengal, and Meghalaya struggle with some of the lowest access figures, but without swift corrective steps, Madhya Pradesh risks edging closer to the bottom rungs rather than the top. The lesson on the table is clear: without a concerted push for ICT investment, teacher training, and stable broadband, the idea of an “equitable” digital classroom in the heartland will remain more slogan than substance.

GFX

Computer availability

Ranking State Percentage

1 Lakshadweep 100

2 Delhi 99.9

3 Chandigarh 99.5

26 MP 59.2

GFX

Internet facility

Ranking State Percentage

1. Lakshadweep 100

2. Delhi 100

3 Chandigarh 100

26 MP 45.7