Deep digital divides exist in India’s Assam tea plantations, where nearly 7 million Adivasi workers labor daily. These tribal communities live in stark poverty.
Dismissed by ISPs, they have weak connectivity and some of the country’s lowest smartphone ownership (under 20%). Tea plantation workers in Upper Assam earn less than $3 a day, which puts data plans beyond their reach.
Many plantation workers lack Aadhaar cards (government-issued biometric identification), have not opened bank accounts, and are unaware of e-government platforms for development schemes, leaving them excluded from India’s digital government programs and progress.
Traveling in Upper Assam with colleagues from the Digital Empowerment Foundation, I saw how committed community leaders and activists are driving real change.
- Soniya Tanti, Johar District Secretary of All Aadivasi Women of Assam, for example, is a staunch ally of the rights of the plantation workers — a trusted advocate who helps connect plantation communities with civil society organizations and banking opportunities.
- Tapan Tanti, a Soochnapreneur (information entrepreneur) providing digital information services to Tyroon Tea Estate workers from his one-room office in Titabor, Jorhat. Tapan started with basic equipment: a laptop, printer, a lamination machine and a biometric scanner to help plantation workers with their IDs and benefits. Now his services include:
- Correcting Aadhaar digital ID errors, which allows plantation workers to access e-government services.
- Assisting plantation workers open bank accounts, reducing wage theft.
- Acting as a micro-ATM, or a community banking access point, saving workers long trips to far away banks.
- Connecting the next generation to scholarships via government portals like SIRISH— just this year, he helped 25 students apply for scholarships.
There are 220 such community information access centers across Assam, including 95 in the tea estates alone. These centers connect communities to e-government platforms, e-banking and digital financial services, and information literacy — all through trust-building and meaningful connectivity.
Ultimately, it’s empowered individuals, with ability to leverage technology that help bridge digital divides.
