Digital Divide: Is science and technology helping the most vulnerable?

Digital divide during covid

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Digital divide during covid

With new inventions and software updates taking place every day, we have come a long way of information technology revolution, making it a historical journey. Newly arrived appliances and gadgets have made people’s life easy (sometimes complicated). Also, information technology is being a paramount help in their work and studies in pandemic times. Modern equipment and machines have become life-saving for humans in times when corona virus is dominating humanity on earth.

When you keep patting your bat for creating every facility of the world, one question remains still unanswered. How much benefits are directly helping the most vulnerable people and communities in their day-to-day life? To get the real answer, we need a reality check. The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) conveyed a Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Forum for the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Digital divide during Covid

The United Nations forum aimed to examine how to make science and technology work better for everyone in the world. The multi-stakeholder forum identified gaps and promotes partnerships in way to get a greener world by 2030. Elaborating importance of science, technology and innovation for human well-being and survival, UN Secretary-General António Guterres cited current COVID-19 pandemic times.

People excluded from tech benefits

Guterres also expressed need for greater global cooperation as billions of people globally still remain largely excluded from advantages of IT revolution. Recently, UN Global Goals President Volkan Bozkır marked digital technologies as game-changer. These are critical in achieving global goals and fighting Covid-19 pandemic, he said. However, he also expressed concerns over digital divide, pointing out the importance of ensuring equitable digital empowerment for all.

No remote learning for children

Last year, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that 1 in 3 children missed out on remote learning worldwide due to inequalities when schools got closed due to Covid-19 lockdown. For approximately 463 million children, when schools closed, “there was no such a thing as remote learning,” UNICEF had said. As per UN agency’s report, over 1.5 billion schoolchildren were affected due to school closures last year.

According to another UN report, alone in Asia-Pacific around 52% of total 4.3 billion people were offline and denied access to digital innovations. Reporting this date, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) expressed fears of digital divide. This could worsen inequalities and encourage more vulnerability in the societies, it said. It’s quite apparent that there is a lot to do to make science and technology work better for all.

digital divide during covid-19, digital divide among students during covid-19, digital divide in education covid-19, digital divide in world during coronavirus, digital divide in education during coronavirus, digital divide during coronavirus outbreak, digital divide in world during coronavirus pandemic, digital divide and information society, digital divide during coronavirus united nations report, digital divide between rich and poor

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