India’s Digital Gender Divide Narrows, But Karnataka, Telangana & Tamil Nadu Still Lagging | Numberspeak

Published 7 June 2026 · india

India’s Digital Gender Divide Narrows, But Karnataka, Telangana & Tamil Nadu Still Lagging | Numberspeak Reported By, Edited By Last Updated: June 07, 2026, 13:02

India’s Digital Gender Divide Narrows, But Karnataka, Telangana & Tamil Nadu Still Lagging | Numberspeak Reported By, Edited By Last Updated: June 07, 2026, 13:02 IST NFHS-6 report says Karnataka (26.4 percentage points); Tripura (23.1); Telangana (22.5); Tamil Nadu (22.3) and Chhattisgarh (22) have widest internet gender gaps Rapid Read The findings suggest that rapid growth in internet access has not translated into equal access everywhere. (AI generated for representation) India’s digital gender divide has narrowed, with 64.3% of women aged 15-49 reporting in 2023-24 that they had used the internet at least once, up from 33.3% in 2019-21. Three of India’s five widest internet gender gaps are in southern states, with Karnataka recording the largest divide in the country. According to the latest report from the Family Health Survey (NFHS-6), Karnataka (26.4 percentage points); Tripura (23.1); Telangana (22.5); Tamil Nadu (22.3) and Chhattisgarh (22) were the five states with the widest internet gender gaps. The NFHS-6, for 2023-24, has gathered information from 6.79 lakh households, covering 7.16 lakh women and over one lakh men. As per NFHS-6, at least 80 per cent of men aged between 15 and 49 have ever used the internet, up from 51% in 2019-21. Even after the sharp rise, women remained 16.2 percentage points less likely than men to report having ever used the internet, although the gap has narrowed from 17.9 percentage points in NFHS-5.

The data analysed by News18 show that internet use among both men and women has increased sharply across India between NFHS-5 and NFHS-6. The highest jump was reported among women in Andhra Pradesh – over three times – from 21% in NFHS-5 to 64% in NFHS-6. Bihar follows closely, with internet use among women rising from 20.6% to 58.4% between the two surveys. The proportion of women who had ever used the internet more than doubled in Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Tripura, Odisha and Chhattisgarh during the said period. In the case of men, the share of men who had ever used the internet doubled in Bihar and nearly doubled in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Meghalaya. STATES WITH HIGHEST GENDER GAP In Karnataka, 84.3% of men reported having ever used the internet, compared with 57.9% of women, creating the country’s widest gender gap of 26.4 percentage points – much higher than the national gap of 16.2 percentage points. Tripura followed with a 23.1-percentage-point gap, with 71.9% of men reporting internet use compared with 48.8% of women. At a 22 percentage point gap stood Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh. Odisha (21 percentage points), Andhra Pradesh (20), Maharashtra (20), Bihar (19.7), Gujarat (18), Jammu & Kashmir (17) and Assam (17) were also the states with gender gap higher than the national average.