Love, Sex and the Internet

What is love?” is one of the most searched for terms in search engines. The conclusion of the Study is that “happiness is love”. It showed that warm relationships are the best basis for health, wealth and a long life. By contrast, addiction, depression and neurosis are the biggest hurdles to this most desired state.

The internet in India has a serious gender problem.

Male Female Internet Users 2019

Just 29% of all internet users in the country are female currently, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The 42 percentage point “digital gender gap” among internet users in India is far more extreme than the global divide. Across the world, 56% of all internet users were men in 2017, compared to 44% women. For the most part, this gap is a result of deep-seated cultural barriers, particularly in rural India. “One village governing body in rural Rajasthan stated that girls were not to use mobile phones or social media,” the UNICEF report said. “Another village in Uttar Pradesh banned unmarried girls from using mobile phones (and from wearing jeans).”

Sex on Internet Data

Another reason for fewer women accessing the internet in India is cost. “Bringing equitable online access to some of the least-connected communities will be challenging,” UNICEF said. For those living under the poverty line (less than $2 a day), it said, the average cost of a smartphone can be up to 16% of their annual income. “Even if mobile phones with internet capabilities were to become more affordable, the extreme poor would still have to contend with high airtime and data costs,” the report said.

Take health care, for instance. Access to online information could go a long way in helping women in a country where 100,000 of them die every year from pregnancy-related causes like improper prenatal care or lack of access to adequate health care facilities.