Barriers and reforms for promoting icts in rural areas of pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan is a developing country and peoples of more than 50,000 areas, cover 64% of the whole population, belong to rural. ICTs are the essence of this modern age but unfortunately, the services of ICTs have failed to trickle down the rural masses of Pakistan. We believe that the inadequacy of infrastructure, i.e., behavioral, cultural and social barriers, is debarring ICTs to strengthen its roots in the rural areas. The most vital task is to wipe out this digital division to change the patterns of thoughts and behaviors of the masses of rural areas. In Pakistan many efforts are in the pipeline to reveal the concrete paybacks of ICTs for rural population. The need of the hour is to do so in a way that makes economic reimbursements. This paper deals with the potential barriers barring ICTs in far wide areas of the Pakistan, various fruitful steps taken by the Government of Pakistan to introduce ICT reforms, various policies framed for boosting ICTs and computer literacy in rural areas. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.