Government to Gift Mobile Phones to Below Poverty Line Families

In the recent years India had faced stiff competition from its neighboring country China in telecom sector. In 2004, China had 295 million subscribers to main telephone lines and 305 million cellular telephone subscribers, the highest number in both the categories. But in March 2012, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that China has 1.01 billion mobile subscribers; of these, 144 million are connected to 3G networks, thus being the highest mobile subscribers in the world.

As the government is planning to gift a mobile to each below poverty line family, the question here arises whether the plan would benefit the below poverty line family. Technology has always been credited for the role it plays in bridging gaps in the society. In rural areas, the potential use of mobile phones has improved the livelihood of rural population making their day-to -day work easier and has shown a positive impact of the technology on their livelihood. Initiating such scheme to the BPL families will definitely help them to get the required aid from the government which they have been deprived of for so many years. With a mobile to each of the family, communication would be much easier for them.

The business in mobile sector will also increase if mobile phones are introduced to below poverty line families. Since India has a large number of mobile subscribers both in rural and urban areas, it is evident that the mobile sector will have more business.