A phone of her own

Teenage girls in rural Haryana aspire for higher education, facing challenges due to limited smartphone access and societal norms.

In the winding alleys of Haryana’s Nalwa village, Hisar district, just about 165 km west of New Delhi, India’s Capital, a group of teenage girls takes time out from studying and housework to meet in the evening. They talk of leaving, to study in a bigger city and build a life of their own.

For Raveena Saroha, 16, the appeal of going out to study stems from her desire to “experience the world outside”. Saroha, who hails from a family of farm labourers, has relatives who moved to Delhi, and who, in their weekly calls, tell her about the many reputed colleges that she can go to, given her calibre and performance in school.

Currently in Class 12, she says, “I do not know about the admission process or the entrance exam, as I do not have my own phone to use for research and studies.” The first-generation learner has only one phone at home, which she gets little access to. When she imagines her future, she thinks of studying Punjabi, her favourite subject, and returning to Hisar to teach. But the path in front of her has not been laid out just yet.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) (rural) 2023, ‘Beyond Basics’, which surveyed 35,000 youth in the 14-18 age group in one or two rural districts in each State, showed that 90% of surveyed households had smartphones. Of the surveyed youth, 94.7% of males and 89.8% of females could use them. Of the males who knew how to use smartphones, 43.7% owned such a device, while in females, only 19.8% owned one.

In Sirsa district, this number was 32.4% for males and 9.9% for females in the 14-16 age group. The percentage was higher in youth aged 17-18, where 69.6% of males and 36.8% of females owned phones. This device gap has an impact on how much information comes to girls for higher education, in terms of online application to universities and paid or free online study resources.

Hisar, one of the 22 districts in Haryana, has many villages where vast expanses of fields are accompanied with some schools, skill training centres, and colleges. In 2023, the National Commission for Women recorded 1,115 complaints of crime against women, of the total 28,811. As per the 2011 Census, the sex ratio of Haryana stood at 879. As per government numbers shared in 2022, the sex ratio in the State was 865 for 2017-2019.

Sunil Jaglan, a gender and education activist in the State, points out that boys’ education is prioritised. While many girls would like to study, even those with the highest marks are left with little information about what to do next, and how to apply to colleges for entrance tests, he adds.