Evaluating socio-economic outcomes of phone use by women in rural Chhattisgarh

Decision-makers challenge

In emerging economies such as India, access to mobile phones and the Internet is vital in providing households with important and relevant information, networks, financial services, and markets. While India is on its way to becoming the largest smartphone market in the world, there are stark gender, rural-urban, and income-based disparities in mobile phone and internet access and usage.

Chhattisgarh has the lowest mobile phone penetration of any state in India—less than 1 in 3 people had access to a mobile phone as of 2018, significantly lower than the estimated national average of 68%.

To address this digital divide, the state government launched the Sanchar Kranti Yojana (SKY) Scheme in the same year. Under this scheme, a total of 4 million smartphones, each with 1GB of free mobile data, were distributed to female household heads in a set of Gram Panchayats (GPs) i.e., village councils. The government aimed to reach other Gram Panchayats in the second phase and urban districts in the third. However, the scheme was discontinued after Phase 1. As a result, women in some GPs had access to smartphones while others didn’t. This created a setting for a natural experiment to explore the question – “What is the impact of mobile phone access on women’s socio-economic conditions?” by comparing outcomes between two very similar groups. 

Inclusion Economics India Centre (IEIC) and researchers from Harvard University, Yale University, Warwick Business School, Ohio State University, Duke University, and the University of Southern California collaborated on an evaluation to answer this question. IDinsight’s DataDelta team led the data collection for this evaluation, and the research team used this data to analyze the impact of increased mobile phone access among women on various socio-economic indicators.

Impact Opportunity 

To bridge digital gaps and mitigate existing disparities, policymakers need to understand their extent, the factors contributing to their prevalence, and effective ways to increase mobile and internet access and usage among different demographic groups. 

This brings us to the question: What conditions make phone access and usage most beneficial for individuals and communities? IDinsight’s Data Delta Team conducted a large-scale survey, collecting comprehensive data across multiple aspects of an individual’s life, including their labor force participation, income, expenditure, media consumption, political engagement, mental health, social networks, social norms, and trust in institutions. This data enabled the researchers to understand the conditions under which phone and internet usage is most impactful and can help further inform government policy, programs, and initiatives.

Our Approach 

DataDelta collected data on the following indicators: household information; labor force participation; norms around women’s phone use and employment opportunities, women’s say in financial decision-making in the family, mobility of women within and outside their respective villages, their networks, mental health, banking, news and media consumption, exposure to Covid-related information, political engagement, and their trust in community members and institutions around them.

We administered the survey in 687 Gram Panchayats (GPs) across 13 districts of Chhattisgarh. Our data collection process included surveys with individual respondents and key informant interviews with a ward member, self-help group president, police officer (kotwal), and/or community health worker (mitanin) in each GP. In total, we conducted the main survey with 23,136 individuals and key informant interviews with 3,133 individuals. To complete the survey, a total of 53,115 contact attempts were made across 41,386 households over a period of 22 weeks. 

Due to the sensitive and personal nature of some questions – e.g., questions around mental health, social networks, and social norms – only female enumerators interviewed female respondents. To make this possible, we set a target of 50% female enumerators for our field team, a rate that far exceeds the traditional gender balance in field teams in India. To enable the large-scale hiring of female enumerators, the DataDelta team took several steps. These included circulating the application forms in colleges, self-help groups, and women-oriented WhatsApp groups; providing cars to all enumerator teams, in contrast to the traditional requirement that applicants have their own motorbikes for transport; and reducing the threshold for educational qualifications and past enumerator experience in our hiring process. Instead, the team opted for a longer training period, including more pilot surveys, to equip all our enumerators with adequate skills and tools for data collection. These steps helped us build an enumerator team of 51% male and 49% female members in 13 districts of Chhattisgarh.

This experience was critical in shaping DataDelta’s 2023 Gender and Intersectionality priorities. We have shared what we learned through two blogs on gender and enumerator hiring and the relationship between gender and data quality. These learnings will feed into future field operations and hopefully contribute to a steady increase in the number of female enumerators we are able to hire and retain in the India region.

The Results

Note: This evaluation was led by IEIC-affiliated researchers; IDinsight collected endline data only. 

The evaluation in Chhattisgarh studied two policy interventions to address digital gender gaps: a government smartphone distribution program (Sanchar Kranti Yojana or SKY) and a digital literacy training program. The study assessed both short-term and long-term impacts of these interventions on women’s smartphone ownership, usage, and broader socioeconomic outcomes.

Phone ownership and usage:

The SKY program led to a significant short-term increase in women’s smartphone ownership. Reported ownership rose by 56 percentage points, effectively closing the gender gap. However, nearly four years later, this impact faded. Fewer than one in four women in treated areas reported owning the phone they used. This figure was similar to that in non-treated areas. In terms of smartphone usage, 56 percent of women in both SKY and non-SKY villages reported using a smartphone in the past 30 days. This indicates no long-lasting effect of the distribution program on ownership or use.

Impact of digital literacy training:

In contrast, digital literacy training led to more sustained outcomes. Three years after receiving training, women who were invited to participate were more than 4 percentage points more likely to have used a smartphone in the past month. They were also more likely to use phones for advanced tasks such as taking photos, watching videos, or performing voice-based internet searches.

Improvements in well-being:

The benefits of training extended beyond phone usage. Women who received training reported larger social networks, more frequent interactions with family members, and better mental health. These improvements were particularly meaningful in rural areas like Chhattisgarh, where women often face restrictions on mobility and access to information.